Hannah Levi is renowned for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers using her secret "birthing spoons." When a Christian Count implores her to attend his dying wife and save their unborn son, she is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the Count's payment is enough to ransom Hannah's husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can she refuse her duty to a woman who is suffering? Hannah's choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the child and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life.
