On vacation with her parents, Tracy takes a journey through St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest permanent European settlement in America, founded by Spanish explorers in 1565. On a visit to Castillo de San Marcos, the fort built to protect the city and the Spanish galleons, Tracy encounters colonial interpreters who tell her tales of the struggles between Spain, France and England over land and treasure in the New World. During a tour of the Spanish quarter, Tracy learns about the daily life and customs of the Spanish settlers - how they cooked their food, traded for goods and kept their homes - as well as the lives of slaves in the colony and the history of the Timucuan Indians, the people who lived in the region before the Spanish arrived.