Rafael is a young man, who grew up as an orphan in a shantytown on the outskirts of Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, a South American country. His parents died when he was ten, and he was unofficially adopted by Carina, a British exile who had left England when she was twenty-five years. She has taught Rafael everything she knows about horses, and he has become a gifted and intuitive horseman. When Carina died, Rafael went to work as a stable boy at the Melilla riding school, but he had no chance to demonstrate his equestrian talents in a place ruled by pretentious notions of class. Opportunities are handed out according to wealth and family connections. Rafael's destiny is inextricably bound to that of Phoebe Lester-Blythe, an unhappy, overweight English schoolgirl whose father works at the British Consulate. This story crosses the world from South America to the home counties of Oxfordshire. It is a tale of passion for horses, intrigue, betrayal and revenge.