It is 72 B.C. and the Spartacus Slave Revolt is raging through the countryside of southern Italy, terrorizing the citizens of Rome, when Gordianus the Finder receives an urgent summons from a mysterious client, calling him to the luxury resort of Baiae on the Bay of Naples. The overseer of a great villa has been killed and all the evidence seems to point to two slaves believed to have since run off to join Spartacus. The master of the house is Marcus Crassus, the richest man in Rome, and he has invoked an ancient Roman law: When slave kills master, justice demands the death of every slave in the household. So in three days, as a part of the funeral games, ninety-nine slaves will be slaughtered in the arena. Crassus has been asking the Senate to grant him a special military command against Spartacus; by decreeing the harshest possible punishment against the remaining slaves, he has turned a potential political embarrassment into a political coup. The truth of the murder is more complicated than it appears; its twisted path leads Gordianus on an extraordinary journey, from a hellish descent into the hold of a Roman slave galley, to an eerie visit to the Cumaen Sibyl, ending at a harrowing gladitorial match. As the hour of the slaughter nears, Gordianus finds himself caught in a web of tantalizing but elusive evidence. But as he begins to discern the solution, he realizes the truth may lead to his own destruction.