It's August, AD 81. Presumed dead by their families but wanted by unknown authorities, Flavia and her friends feel very far from home. News of more kidnappings in Italia reach them, and the four detectives set out for Halicarnassus in the Roman province of Asia.

"After escaping the ruthless desperados, master-of-disguise P.K. Pinkerton has now set up a Private Eye business in Virginia City and is ready when a young maid named Martha approaches him for help in escaping a killer"--Publisher.

When a Roman widow shows unusual interest in Flavia's father, Flavia decides to discover Cartila's true motives by performing twelve tasks, just like the Greek hero Hercules.

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.

In 1860s Nevada, master-of-disguise P.K. Pinkerton uncovers a sinister plot when he takes a case that calls for him to shadow his friend and mentor, Poker Face Jace.

Flavia and her friends go to Rome to celebrate the Festival of Jupiter at Senator Cornix's town house, where they befriend the young charioteer, Scopas, and quickly find themselves embroiled in a campaign to sabotage one of the rival racing factions.

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.