The Garden of Earthly Delights is a historical novel set in the time of the Spanish Inquisition and the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Heironymous Bosch, a major artist of the northern Renaissance who created demons, hell-scapes and pre-surrealist paintings, is fleeing Seville one step ahead of the Inquisition after Teresa inadvertently poisons a servant in the royal household with an innocent medicine Bosch altered to get the right bilious green color for a painting. Dona Teresa is a herbalist. Her episodic lover is the historical physician and astronomer Dr. Joseph Vecinho.

In Córdoba Teresa assists a young bride who wishes to conceive with the urine of a post-menopausal nun; when the husband dies on the wedding night she is blamed and flees with Bosch to Granada . "It's your turn to steal the horse."

When Queen Isabella expels the Jews from Spain, Teresa convinces Bosch they have to smuggle Joseph Vecinho over the border into France. In Barcelona things take a turn for the worse when Bosch is accused of heresy for his paintings and Teresa is accused in a plot to poison the Queen.

Bosch gets his wish to see what the Inquisitorial process of torture is like from inside the prison, but he didn't anticipate personally being the victim of the garrucha, the water torture, the rack, mice on the stomach under a heated bowl ... and the auto de fe is next ...