Roman Britain. Midsummer AD 371. Two years have passed since the traumatic invasions of the Barbarica Conspiratio were finally suppressed. But in a Britannia still suffering sporadic raids by barbarians from beyond the frontiers there is said to exist a scroll listing the names of influential men – and women – plotting to secede from the Empire and use the taxes saved to boost the island’s defences. And where: Claudius Caninus (Canio) has unwisely disclosed that he dreamt he is the grandson of the long-dead usurper emperor Allectus, although he is still unsure whether he actually believes the dream. Aelia Aureliana is the owner of one of the finest villas in the province, a worshipper of the sun god Helios/Sol, and mysteriously certain that Canio really is Allectus’s grandson – but will not tell him why. Tribunus Maximus, an army officer, suspects that Aelia knows the location of the scroll and is blackmailing Canio to find it for him. But to do so Canio must get close to Aelia, and the closer he gets the more he falls under the spell of both the woman and her ambitions.