Yael is in her late teens and lives in Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jewish people. Romans have been persecuting her people for ages, crucifying them in synagogues, and sacking their temples. The Roman attack has divided the Jewish people: Many priests have submitted to the Romans, while other Jewish people condemn the priests for doing so. Yael cannot remember when the Roman occupation of Jerusalem began, but she knows the month in which it became unbearable: Av (corresponding to July-August of the Roman calendar), the month of the lion. To Yael’s people, Av symbolizes destruction, because it was the month the first Temple was destroyed. A second Temple was built over the ruins of the first and held the Ark of the Covenant. Though the Ark disappeared, the Temple stood for hundreds of years before the Roman onslaught began.

Yael has another reason for dreading Av: It is the month of her birth. Since red-headed Yael was born with reddish-brown birthmarks and her mother died giving birth to her, she is believed to be cursed. Yael’s father, Yosef bar Elnahan, blames her for his wife’s death and refuses to even look at Yael, preferring her older brother Amram to her.