From Aztec princess to slave and concubine, Hummingbird--or Huitzitzilín in her native Nahuatl--recounts her life during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Expressing a confidence and freedom that women have strived for centuries to attain, Huitzitzilín passionately relates her tale to Father Benito, the priest who seeks to confess and convert her, to offer her an absolution she neither needs nor wants. Instead, she forces him to see the conquest, for the first time, through the eyes of the conquered.