In 1068, the scholar Salomon ben Isaac returns home to Troyes, France, to take over the family wine-making business and embark on a path that will indelibly influence the Jewish world writing the first Talmud commentary, and secretly teaching Talmud to his daughters. Joheved, the eldest of his three girls, finds her mind and spirit awakened by religious study, but, knowing the risk, she must keep her passion for learning and prayer hidden. When she becomes betrothed to Meir ben Samuel, she is forced to choose between marital happiness and being true to her love of the Talmud.