--Two decades after the birth of Christ Abi, a Nubian archer of Jewish background, resides in Meroe, a city-state in the general vicinity of Ethiopia. Once a member of a group of archers in training for the royal army, she has been dismissed from the palace because she is considered too attractive to be a good soldier. In her family's home, she receives abuse from her father and unkindness from her stepmother. Melech, a eunuch slave, loves her the...