Kathryn Sloan writes that this book “transports the reader into the tantalizing world of colonial Cartagena, a vibrant and dynamic port city where sex and politics met on a daily basis. Von Germeten provocatively describes how women wielded their sexuality—switching between active and passive when necessary—as an instrument to control their conjugal relationships and impact judicial outcomes when strained to defend their honor or spiritual practices.”

Nicole von Germeten takes the reader beneath the surface of daily in a colonial city. Cartegena was an important Spanish port and the site of an Inquisition high court, a salve market, a leper colony, a military base, and a prison colony—colonial institutions that imposed order by enforcing Catholicism, cultural and religious boundaries, and prevailing race and gender hierarchies. The city was also simmering with illegal activity, from contraband trade to prostitution to heretical religious practices.

Von Germeten’s research uncovers scandalous stories drawn from archival research in inquisition cases, criminal records, wills, and other legal documents. The stories focus largely on sexual agency and honor: an insult directed as a married woman causes a deadly street battle; a young doña uses sex to manipulate a lustful, corrupt inquisitor. Scandals like these illustrate the central thesis of the book: women in colonial Cartagena de Indias took control of their own sex lives and used sex and rhetoric connected to sexuality to plead their cases when they had to negotiate with colonial bureaucrats.