Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews her determination to live her own life.

At the Castellana Hilton in 1957 Madrid, eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson connects with Ana Moreno through photography and fate as Daniel discovers the incredibly dark side of the city under Generalissimo Franco's rule. Madrid, 1957. Daniel Matheson, the son of a Texas oil tycoon, arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. He meets Ana Moreno, whose family's interweaving...