The Bay of Naples, 72 BC. A steward is murdered at the villa of Marcus Licinius Crassus, and two enslaved men disappear. Crassus assumes they have fled to join Spartacus and invokes the law that permits the execution of the entire household if the killer is not identified.
Gordianus has five days to investigate among ninety-nine people whose lives depend on his answer. The case exposes sexual exploitation, resentment and concealed relationships inside the villa while the Third Servile War makes every missing slave appear part of a wider threat to Roman society.