Paul Barclay's story continues. Six years from the end of Le Morte d'Mortimer, Jack Hammond persuades Paul to return to London where he meets up with Joseph and Aaron, the mysterious agent Esther Fanning and two Hollywood movie makers. Under Fanning's management Literary, Theatrical and Movie successes have made them all incredibly rich. On a visit to Cambridge Joseph begins to unveil parts of his life hitherto unknown to Paul. The reappearance of McArthur, sparks off further mystery. Paul moves on to Amsterdam to meet up with Jack Hammond and finds himself managed and manipulated by the...

Thirteen years after being drawn into the Mortimer network, Paul Barclay buys a house on the Island of Thirasia at Santorini, which is joined by a terrace to that owned by Joseph. Paul and Joseph plan books and the dark stranger Chris Patsos steps into their story. Hammond is working obsessively for the Mortimer Foundation in London and managing Antonio (Tony), the baby from Book One, into a Ballet career Paul burns to write a new book. He leaves London, and returns to Thirasia where he can write and work on a TV series with Joseph, who is in the throes of creating a new monster best seller....

The final novel in the Mortimer Quartet rounds the story out. Paul has had another major historical success with The White Hart a novel about Richard the Second. Joseph is working on the story of Antinous the boy lover of the Emperor Hadrian. Egged on by Chris Patsos, Joseph struggles to find a unique way into the Antinous story, Paul receives a mysterious present from Esther Fanning. All along this has been Paul Barclay's story and he finally sees the overall picture that has ruled his life for fourteen years. It is in the final story The Emperor's Whore that he understands the power, the...