The Other Moctezuma Girls: A Novel

In sixteenth-century Mexico, a young woman seeks to uncover secrets her mother kept as the last Aztec empress. Set in Tenochtitlan in 1551, thirty years after the Spanish Conquest, the story begins when the empress dies and leaves behind a legacy for her children. As her will is read, her daughter Isabel suspects that a hidden account of her mother's life exists somewhere in the Valley of Mexico, written chapter by chapter. Isabel is determined to discover who her mother truly was and what secrets she buried to survive. Accompanied by her siblings and a young cook named Juan, Isabel embarks on a difficult journey to reconstruct the past. The quest takes them through the viceroyal court, across mystical chinampas, and through desert, fire, and snow. As Isabel's feelings for Juan develop, she confronts what she believed about her Spanish father, her empress mother, and herself. From ancient pyramid tunnels to an active volcano's summit, Isabel faces numerous obstacles in her search for truth.