Fatima is a concubine in the court of Sultan Abu Abdullah in Granada--the last emirate of Muslim Spain--during the Spanish Inquisition. Fatima is friends with the palace mapmaker, Hassan, who has a mystical gift. He can draw maps of lands he's never seen and open doorways to new rooms and even new worlds. A delegation of Spaniards under the new monarchy comes to see the sultan to demand he relinquish his rule in favor of the Christian monarch. One of the delegates notices Hassan's gift and denounces him as a sorcerer. Fatima and Hassan are forced to flee, and on their journey they rely on a vampire-jinn Vikram, his cat-like sister Azazel, and a host of other fantastical creatures.