Italy. XV century. Katerina is beautiful and willful. She is a true daughter of the Renaissance: she knows Greek and Aramaic, reads Socrates and Plato, and practices alchemy. Having fallen in love, she, regardless of conventions, gives birth to a child out of wedlock. The young mother is separated from her son; according to the customs of that time, the boy must be raised in his father's family. When her grown son is sent as an apprentice to the workshop of the famous artist Verrocchio, Caterina, dressed in a man's dress, follows her son to Florence. There she meets the greatest artists and thinkers of the time, becomes a close friend of Lorenzo de' Medici and participates in all the Duke's endeavors. Mother's love helped the boy grow up and become a genius who changed the world. His name was Leonardo da Vinci. This novel tells the true story of his real mother.