Caught up in the maelstrom following the death of an obscure rabbi in the Roman backwater of first-century Palestine Leah finds herself also engulfed in her own turmoil - facing the prospect of an arranged marriage to a Roman soldier Alban who seems to care for nothing but his own ambitions. Head of the garrison near Galilee he has been assigned by Palestine’s governor to ferret out the truth behind the rumors of a political execution gone awry. Leah’s mistress the governor’s wife secretly commissions Leah also to discover what really has become of this man whose death - and missing body - is causing such furor.