The year is 3790 in the Hebrew calendar: 30 AD. A young man is travelling the countryside around the Sea of Galilee preaching a message of love and justice; a prophet is being made, and a martyr. But that story is well known. The young preacher, then known as Joshua of Nazareth, had a sister at home. Of her, we know nothing at all. The Book of Rachael is the story of a fiercely intelligent child consigned by her sex to a life of ignorance and drudgery. But Rachael fights her destiny, secretly learning the forbidden skills of literacy from her father, Yosef, and her brother. And when she falls in love with Joshua's closest friend, Judah of Iscariot, it even seems that Rachael will find happiness in her constrained world. Then a message comes from Joshua. He is on his way to Jerusalem for Passover. He plans to speak out in the Temple against the corrupt establishment, and he asks for Judah's help. And so begins the chain of tragic events that will change not just Rachael's life, but the world forever.