526 AD. Antioch lies in ruins. Once the glory of the Roman empire, where Christianity came to its own, the city is now is a broken-backed man that cannot stand. Sixteen year old Marcellus, a young Byzantine nobleman, is forced to evacuate his neighbor Byziana and her young siblings from their home in Antioch to the capital city of Constantinople. Trekking through seven hundred miles of bandit country they hope to find their missing father and recover their lost fortune.

Three things can determine their future: a betrothal ring, a tooth of an infant saint, and a trunkful of forbidden...