Ancient Rome, AD 37. A scribe in a noble household, Cormac has known only slavery—until the day he’s cast out and declared free. But freedom without food, work, or purpose is its own kind of sentence. Somewhere between slave and citizen, all that was once orderly, structured and routine is now chaos, and Cormac must learn life anew. His writing skills have afforded him flickers of opportunity in a world far wealthier than his, but will he resist the pull of the city's underbelly? Can Cormac fight against all the odds to rise up and make something of his freedom?