During a stop-over in the city of Smyrna in April of 83 AD a Roman citizen traveling in a caravan is brutally murdered. Since there are no Roman magistrates on the scene, Pliny the Younger takes charge of an investigation until the governor of the province arrives. He learns that the victim, Lucius Cornutus, had antagonized several people in the caravan. One owed him large sums of money from gambling debts. A group of women, devotees of a witch-like cult, may have killed him as a prelude to one of their rituals. Two of Cornutus' own slaves -- who were thought to have been locked up for the night -- were actually able to get out of confinement. Most surprising, Pliny learns that Cornutus was poisoned first, then knifed. Is he dealing with two killers or one? And what part does the beautiful blond slave girl play in all this?