Rome, 80 BC and Cicero is about to conduct his first important case, the defence of well-heeled farmer Sextus Roscius against the charge of killing his hated father Gordianus the Finder, hired by Cicero to dig up evidence, soon learns why the elder Roscius was lured to his death a summons from Elena, a young prostitute pregnant with a possible heir Gordianus's investigations lead him on the track of a brutal conspiracy, uncovering some sordid truths about the Roscius family in time for Cicero to set off the expected courtroom fireworks and invoke the wrath of the dictator Sulla