It is August, A.D. 81. Presumed dead by their families, Flavia and her friends feel very far from home. News of more kidnappings in Italia reaches them, and when they discover one of Miriam's twins is among the missing, the four detectives set out for Halicarnassus in the Roman province of Asia. There they find a countryside full of prophets who claim to heal the sick and cure the lame, but who may simply be tricksters and villains in disguise. Once again, the detectives' loyalties are tested as they are confronted with hopes for the future and grim legacies of the past.