When Pegasus, racing mega-star and lead driver of the Whites faction, is found stabbed to death in the alleyway beside a wineshop, Marcus Corvinus is already on site.

The local District Watch - crooked to a man - claim that the killer's motive was a simple theft.

Tracking the murderer down with the often-unwilling help of his wife Perilla takes Marcus deep into the murky world of Roman chariot-racing with all its secrets, skulduggeries and scams; and his task is not made any easier by the fact that in the process he has a lovesick major-domo, an invisible dagger and Mount Etna to contend with.