The Iliad ends in a cliffhanger. People in antiquity wanted to know exactly what had happened after the funeral of "Hector the breaker of horses" and before the Greeks returned home in triumph. Quintus of Smyrna undertook to tell the story anew in The Fall of Troy.
Reinforcements bring hope to the beleaguered city of Troy, even as new champions arise for the besiegers. Amid the ferocity of the ensuing battles more than physical survival is at stake. The very definition of human heroism hangs in the balance. When the Greeks climb down from the wooden horse and fire the city, the flames illuminate something truly timeless: what gives meaning to mortal life within the constraints set by Fate and the divine.