The secret love affair between the slave Verluccus and his master Gaius Marcius' sister, Gaia has to end when he must leave Britain and travel to Rome with his master. He does not know he has left Gaia pregnant and she is terrified her husband will discover her crime. Her freedwoman devises a plan which goes tragically wrong and blights Gaia's life. On the way to Rome Gaius is attacked and left for dead and the missing Verluccus...