Matthias Fitzosbert, illegitimate son of a parish priest, has a unique relationship with Rosifer, the fallen angelthe spirit he loves yet hates, strives to placate yet ultimately must flee. The story of Matthias is played out against the vivid panorama of the Middle Agesthe fall of Constantinople; the last throes of the Wars of the Roses; the terror of witchcraft; the loneliness of the Scottish marches; the battlefields of Spain; and finally, the lush jungles of the Caribbean, where the Rose Demon and Matthias meet for a final deadly confrontation."

Agrippina, wife of Claudius, mother of Nero, was a beautiful and talented woman who saw her father murdered, was banished by her brother, and was killed on the orders of her son. Her freed man, a one-eyed former gladiator named Parmenon, tells of Agrippina's battle to survive in and control the depraved and violent Imperial Roman court, and the crumbling relationship between mother and son.