On a Sunday morning in July 1625, Barbary pirates sail into a quiet Cornish bay and storm the church. Their loot: 60 men, women and children, kidnapped and bound for northern Morocco, where they are to be sold in the thronging slave market of the Souq el Ghezel. Amongst them is Catherine Anne Tregenna, a feisty and talented young embroiderer. But as her diary reveals, Cat is anything but the subservient and complaint slave that her captors were expecting - and as the coast of England fades from sight, adventure beckons in the East... In an expensive London restaurant, a gift is given that will change Julia Lovat's life. The weathered little book of Jacobean embroidery delights her, but when she settles down to read it more closely, she unexpectedly discovers within its foxed and faded pages the extraordinary diary of a young Cornish girl, calling to her from across the centuries...