It's AD 76 during the reign of Vespasian, and Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman 'informer', has achieved much in his life He's joined the equestrian rank, allowing him to marry Helena Justina, the Senator's beloved daughter But now he's just been hired to undergo a dangerous mission to pry his brother-in-law Aulus, a scholar on the way to study in Athens, away from a murder investigation involving two dead women at the ancient site of the Olympic Games