With a whole week of festivals and frolics, feasting and tomfoolery about to kick off. Claudia can hardly believe it when her teenage stepdaughter is abducted. She can't pay the ransom. The cash simply isn't there. Since her husband died, his fellow businessmen have banded together to freeze her out of trade.

And the only man who might be able to help, the charismatic Orbilio, is hamstrung by problems of his own.

Which leaves Claudia with the task of tracking down the kidnappers herself.

Meanwhile, a mysterious Egyptian cult is growing in popularity with Roman citizens. But several of its young female members are beginning to experience strange disturbances ...