Cartagena de las Indias, the early years of the 17th century. Black slavery, piracy, witchcraft, inquisitions, press gangs. In an unfair world, the figure of Pedro Claver come to the fore as a living protest against the egoistic society of the day: the infamous trading of black slaves, and white exploiters, the situation of the ill and those on the margins, and the cruelty of the Inquisition in that remote region of colonial Spain. With rigorous historical research and a readable style, this novel recounts the selfless life of a unique Jesuit saint, a simple man, of "few words and many deeds", who fought for the dignity and lives of millions of slaves. Together with his almost unknown companion, the intellectual Alonso de Sandoval, he anticipates the century.