The Etruscan civilisation still dominates the centre of Italy, but things are changing. Trade with Greece brings new ideas, while the recently founded city of Rome may be poor and lawless but offers a chance for the ambitious to make their names and their fortune. Thanchvil, though a member of the royal house of Tarchna, takes that chance with her husband the half-Greek, half-Etruscan Lauchme, and soon they gain the old king's favour. Can they take power? And can they keep it?