Marcus Didius Falco & his friend Petronius find their local fountain has been blocked - by a severed human hand. Soon other body parts are being found in the aqueducts & sewers. The Aventine partners are commissioned to investigate.

It is the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. The days are short, the nights are for wild parties. A general has captured a famous enemy of Rome, and brings her home to adorn his Triumph as a ritual sacrifice. However, the logistics go wrong.

?Rats are always bigger than you expect?? Falco, ancient Rome?s hangdog investigator, hates sharing a cell with a rodent - though being bailed by his old mother is almost as embarrassing. His high-born girlfriend can?t decide if she wants him, and Titus Caesar?s reward for past services is a wet fish. Hoping for a better life, or at least a better apartment, he takes on new clients. On the elegant slopes of the Pincian Hill, three nouveau riche freedmen...