Alatriste , his young ward , Inigo Balboa -LRB- 13 when the story takes place -RRB- , and their friend , the '' poet , swordsman and highly celebrated wit at court '' Francisco de Quevedo , run afoul of the Inquisition by trying to help a converso rescue his daughter from a nunnery in Madrid run by an evil friar -- '' a pervert who has turned the convent into his private seraglio . ''