"Catalonia, 15th century. Alamanda, sold as a slave by her own father when she was still just a child, discovers in the library of Sant Benet monastery, between the shelves of forbidden books, the secret of the most wo nderful color that humanity has ever been able to create: purple. Symbol of emperors, popes and kings, a thousand times more expensive than gold, purple was the forger of commercial empires in ancient times, but the technique to obtain this pigment was inexplicably lost in the mist of time. Only a girl will be able to restore the color of the Empire to th e world."--