The destinies of two Scottish families, one of shopkeepers and one of wealth and power, become entwined through their involvement in World War I, social causes, and love.
Louisa Barrett, headmistress of the Macaulay School for Girls in 1901 Buffalo, New York, feels secure in her position at the school and in the community until a mysterious death at the hydro-electric power development at nearby Niagara Falls forces her to return to a past she had struggled to conceal.
Isabel must try to save her father, who served as court physician to Spain's king and queen, when he is arrested by the Grand Inquisitor for his Jewish heritage during the Spanish Inquisition.
Suspecting their friend Jonathan is alive, Flavia, Nubia, and Lupus go to Rome for the Colosseum Games, facing wild beasts, criminals, conspirators, and gladiators, and where Nubia is called upon to make a terrible choice.
Jonathan and his friends are called to Rome by the emperor in the winter of 80 A.D. to find the new Prometheus believed to have brought an epidemic to the city, but Jonathan, obsessed with reuniting his parents, makes some unwise--and life-threatening--choices.
Teenage Marcus Oppius Sabinus is recruited by his cousin to work on Julius Caesar's political campaign, but after he shows promise in the art of bribery, Marcus is sent to Greece on a dangerous mission to spy on and sabotage Cicero's supporters.
The bequest of a cello bow in early twentieth-century Spain sets young Feliu Delargo on the path to a music career which is enhanced by his partnership with eccentric piano prodigy Justo Al-Cerraz, and the two spend years making beautiful music together while disagreeing about nearly everything else--except their daring final collaboration with Jewish Italian violinist Aviva.
