Stuck in the Roman outpost of Londinium, Marcus Didius Falco is ready to pack up his family and go home... until the corpse of a nobleman turns up, head down, in a well behind a local tavern. The dead man turns out to be a close friend of the king and suddenly Falco has a murder case to solve before he can get out of town. Taking on the British tradition of the pub crawl, he soon gets a major hangover -- along with a tip that the victim had dealings with dangerous gangsters. Now hot on the trail of the killer; Falco delves deeper into the city's demimonde and winds up in an arena full of female gladiators. Here, among outcasts and rogues, Falco discovers comradeship, honor... and, with his own life hanging in the balance, someone willing to die for a friend.