In the high summer of 77 AD, Roman informer Marcus Didius Falco is beset by personal problems Newly bereaved and facing unexpected upheavals in his life, it is a relief for him to consider someone else's misfortunes A middle-aged couple who supplied statues to his father, Geminus, have disappeared in mysterious circumstances They had an old feud with a bunch of notorious freedmen, the Claudii, who live rough in the pestilential Pontine Marshes, terrorising the neighbourhood When a mutilated corpse turns up near Rome, Falco and his vigiles friend Petronius investigate, even though it means travelling in the dread marshes