The year is 44 B.C.

Julius Caesar has been assassinated and civil war threatens to destroy the Republic. In the void left by Caesar's demise, egos clash and numerous players jockey for position. The brutally ambitious Mark Antony attempts to solidify his power, aligning himself with Atia, but coming to blows with her cunning son Octavian, who has been anointed in Caesar's will as his only son and heir. The conspirator Brutus ponders how to curry favor with the masses that have condemned him as a murderer, while his mother Servilia concots a deadly plot of her own. Meanwhile, Titus Pullo attempts to pull his friend Lucas Vorenus out of the darkness that has engulfed his soul in the wake of personal tragedy. For once again, the fates of these two mismatched soldiers seem inexorably tied to the fate of Rome itself.