When Rome falls, so too will the world…Christmas, 1797. Erstwhile magistrate Felix Gracchus wakes in the French embassy beside the Tiber after a serious bout of malaria. Despite his poor health, the intricate puzzle of a local inheritance scandal proves irresistible. To his delight Lieutenant Vanderville has been assigned to the embassy intelligence section, tasked with pacifying the rabidly pro-revolutionary local patriots who seek to overthrow the state and install a republic in Rome. But a sudden, terrible development threatens to bring disaster upon the whole embassy. Can the pair...