With Titus Caesar in pursuit of his patrician girlfriend Helena, the louche Roman sleuth, Marcus Didius Falco, is sent out of the way on an undercover mission to Roman Germany where there has been trouble with the natives. There he must exercise his doubtful diplomatic skills on the very uncivil Civilis, a one-eyed Batavian rebel chieftain, and must also persuade Veleda, a sinister tribal prophetess to desist from incessant rabble-rousing. But every rustling leaf heralds the approach of ancient ghosts, headhunting tribesmen or primeval animals…