A killer is stalking the backstreets of Rome. Newborn babies are being snatched at night. A small boy is abandoned.

Five slave women have been murdered on Market Day. With insurrection bubbling, the authorities don't have the resources (or the inclination) to follow up.

In the back alleys of the capital city, close to one of the ripper's victims, Claudia finds an abandoned boy and takes him home with her. Claudia feels responsible for the boy and soon discovers the victims all have something in common: they possess a tattoo marking them as the "children of Arbil."

And it is Claudia who discovers that Arbil the Babylonian is not a loving father. Not at all.