When Pegasus, racing mega-star and lead driver of the Whites faction, is found stabbed to death in the alleyway, Marcus Corvinus is already on site. Tracking the murderer down takes Marcus deep into the murky world of Roman chariot-racing with all its secrets, skulduggeries, and scams; and his task is not made any easier by the fact that in the process he has a lovesick major-domo, an invisible dagger, and Mount Etna to contend with.