Twelve‑year‑old prodigy Rafal strives to live by reason, hoping society will honor him while he keeps his emotions in check. To that end he declares publicly that he intends to pursue theology—the most esteemed discipline of early‑15th‑century Poland. Yet a chance meeting with an enigmatic stranger turns his life around, igniting an irrational urge to follow his true passion: astronomy.
Rafal is resolved to demonstrate the elegance and logic of heliocentrism, the idea that Earth circles the Sun. The dominant Church deems this view heretical and insists on geocentrism, teaching that the Sun revolves around Earth as the only truth. Those who stray from the Church"s doctrine face unimaginable, brutal punishment.
In his quest for proof of a heliocentric cosmos, Rafal wrestles with exact calculations and the construction of empirical models. His greatest obstacle is conducting this work covertly, lest he meet the same grim destiny as other heretics. He knows that every observation he records could be scrutinized by inquisitors, and the slightest misstep might seal his fate.
