Flavia and Nubia follow Jonathan to Rome and into the Golden House built by the emperor Nero, where a dangerous assassin lurks.

At a refugee camp following the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which buried Pompeii, Flavia and her friends discover that children are disappearing and a very powerful citizen might be involved.

Jonathan and his friends are called to Rome by the emperor in the winter of 80 A.D. to find the new Prometheus believed to have brought an epidemic to the city, but Jonathan, obsessed with reuniting his parents, makes some unwise--and life-threatening--choices.

Suspecting their friend Jonathan is alive, Flavia, Nubia, and Lupus go to Rome for the Colosseum Games, facing wild beasts, criminals, conspirators, and gladiators, and where Nubia is called upon to make a terrible choice.