After the deaths of her family and now her cruel betrothed, Faustina Lucia Satrius, devotes her life to managing her father’s estates in an attempt to forget nearly being raped by a priest during a Dionysian marriage ritual. The fact that Faustina is successful in handling her father’s clients frustrates many of the hierarchy of Pompeii but mostly her hated enemy, the city magistrate A. Cossus Labinus who is determined to see the House of Satrius fall. Now, Faustina must contend with an imperial senator sent to Pompeii by Vespasian Caesar. To further her annoyance, the senator lures her to trust him.
Tired of the pampered females of Rome, Marcus Cornelius Sulla is fascinated with Pompeii’s beautiful plague. This rich, powerful, and gorgeous senator surprisingly discovers Faustina wants nothing from him…including him. Cornelius arranges to have his friend Titus Caesar, the emperor’s son, invite Faustina to Rome for the festival of Tabilustrium where she wins a gladiatrix in a bet with Titus. Now, that Cornelius has these few days with Faustina, he believes he’ll win her affections… only to fail.
Titus has taken an interest in Faustina and now that she may become his empress , Faustina will have nothing to do with Cornelius who has lured her to Rome. She doesn’t like Rome and only wishes to be left to run her father’s estates. However, she will gladly tour Rome with Cerberus, Hade’s guard dog, if it would help her hamper Cossus Labinus’s attempts to destroy what her father has built in Pompeii What Cornelius shows her of Rome melts Faustina’s resistance a fraction and she discovers he can be pleasant company.
Finally, during their return trip, Faustina begins to trust Cornelius. However, their last night in Pliny’s famous villa Laurentum together turns catastrophic and now Faustina refuses to accept even his apologies.
During her absence, Cossus has managed to manipulate Pompeii’s city council into having Faustina’s guardian, Pliny the Elder agree to have Faustina wed by fall. Cornelius can’t lose Faustina to another man and ensnares her into accepting his betrothal. After many tenuous moments and to Cossus’s dismay, Faustina accepts Cornelius’s offer. After which, Cornelius helps Faustina heal her damaged past and reawaken the passions buried deep in her soul.
The Neptunalia games that Faustina sponsors to keep her father’s name foremost in the city soon arrive. Against Faustina’s wishes, Hetta, gladiatrix won from a bet, challenges the winners of the matches. She is killed and Faustina is devastated. Cornelius realizes that Cossus has rigged her death. He wasn’t the little bastard ruined.
Titus has granted Cornelius the use of the imperial palace on Capri after their wedding set for 27 August, AD 79. However, before he and Faustina are married, Cornelius must complete Caesar’s demands on him. As 24 August arrives, Faustina is kidnapped and nearly raped by Cossus and the Dionysian priest she believed to be dead. Then, Vesuvius erupts, saving Faustina from this nightmare yet creates another.
Through the falling ash and volcanic ballista, Cornelius struggles back to Pompeii and must force Faustina from her father’s house already collapsing from the mounds of ash and pumice. They struggle to hide in a shepherd’s cave as Vesuvius finally buries not only Pompeii but also the entire valley.
As they stand alone on the rock shelf, Cornelius and Faustina feel as if the gods preserved only them as they witness this horrific devastation. Suddenly, the cave behind them explodes. Knocked from the rock shelf, Cornelius carries Faustina across to the grassy plain just beyond the flowing stream of volcanic acid which nearly cost him his life. After all this, Faustina can’t lose him now.
Soldiers sent from Titus cares for Cornelius and then deliver them to Puteoli. Along the way, they witness the destruction of Herculaneum where he left his parents only days before. The catastrophe cements Faustina and Cornelius’s love for each other, knowing they have lost everything but they have not lost each other and that is all that matters now.
