Gnaeus Volusenianus Pullus has settled into life as Centurion commanding the Fifth Century of the First Cohort of the 1st Legion, happy to put behind him the intrigue, schemes, and political maneuvering that dominated his life, first during his time with the Praetorian Guard, then during the campaign to depose the Marcomanni king Maroboduus and replace him with the puppet Catualda, masterminded by Lucius Visellius Varro, who was forced to flee back to Rome in disgrace following the rapid collapse of Catualda's reign. However, when a sudden uprising by several Gallic tribes, beginning with the Treveri, is answered by Gnaeus' own 1st Legion, and the 2nd Legion stationed in Vetera, to Gnaeus' alarm, and dismay, he learns that the Praetor of Lower Germania is Varro's father, and the father sends his son with the 2nd, bringing with him the same kind of political intrigue and maneuvering that Gnaeus thought he had escaped.
There is another shock when, after suppressing the Treveri, the far more powerful Aedui tribe rises up, led by an Aedui nobleman named Gaius Julius Sacrovir, the half-brother of Gnaeus' former Primus Pilus and the current Camp Prefect, Tiberius Sacrovir. Not only are the Aedui more numerous, they are better equipped, and it quickly becomes obvious to Gnaeus and other officers that Sacrovir the Aedui had assistance from a very powerful but secret ally. It is not until after the climatic and final battle that the source of that aid becomes clear, and that Gnaeus' nemesis Varro is at least peripherally involved, but it is at whose behest that drags Gnaeus back into a world where danger is around every corner that he thought he had escaped, where his famous name is at least partly responsible.
