Five slave women have been murdered on Market Day, so it isn't a safe time for Claudia to be chased by dogs into the darkest streets of Rome. In the back alleys of the capital city, Claudia finds an abandoned boy, Jovi, and takes him home with her. A killer is stalking the streets, his victims linked by a tattoo that marks them as the "children of Arbil." But Arbil is no loving father—he is a baby-snatcher who runs a slave-rearing empire.