The events all take place during the first half of the seventeenth century, at first in Seville and later in Madrid, where Velazquez and King Philip live. Twice, Velazquez and Pareja visit Italy to buy art for their king. The people of Seville live in constant fear of the plague; Pareja's first owners die from the plague, and he nearly succumbs, too. His first mistress's nephew, Don Diego, inherits him, and Pareja is sent to Madrid to live with his new owners. Madrid is an exciting place, the center of an empire. Here, Pareja lives with Don Diego's family in a house that has a room open to most of the day's sunlight. In that room, Don Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez has his painting studio, and young Pareja learns to care for the artist's paints and other work materials. When Velazquez becomes painter to the king...