There's no place like home. Unfortunately Marcus Didius Falco is a thousand miles north, stuck in the Roman outpost of Londinium. And just when he's about to pack up his family, assorted relatives, and friend Petronius to return to Rome, a dead body turns up, head down, in a well behind a local drinking establishment. The victim is Verovolcus, a nobleman known to Falco and, more important, a close friend of the king. Suddenly Falco has a murder case to solve before he can get out of town.