In 11th-century England, the mother of young Rob Cole has side sickness (appendicitis) and he foresees her death when he touches her. The orphan Rob is alone and he follows a traveling barber-surgeon who teaches him how to cure the needy. When the barber is blinded with cataracts, Rob Cole seeks out a Jewish physician that recovers the barber's vision. Rob Cole decides to learn medicine with the famous Ibn Sina in the distant Persia. Along his one-year journey, Rob makes a circumcision on himself and changes his name to Jesse Ben Benjamin, posing as Jewish to be accepted by Ibn Sina's school in Isfahan. Further he falls in love with Rebecca that is traveling to Isfahan in the same caravan to get married in a marriage of convenience. Jesse learns medicine with Ibn Sina while he performs forbidden experience with a corpse and has sex with Rebecca. When the mullahs betray the Shah Ala ad-Daula to the Seljuk, the lives of Ibn Sina, Jesse and their friends are deeply affected.