The fourteenth Falco novel is a tale of love, gangsters and female gladiators - including one from Falco's own past. Falco and his family are staying in London when Falco is summoned to the scene of a murder. The victim, Verovolcus, was a renegade with ties to Roman crime magnates operating in London, but he was also close to King Togidubnus. So when he is discovered stuffed head-first down a well, a tricky diplomatic situation develops that Falco must defuse, and which leads him into the seedy underbelly of London. There is a newly built amphitheatre in town, with female gladiators, but Falco soon realizes that the initially troublesome gladiators - including one from his own bachelor past - may just give him the edge he needs to solve Verovolcus' murder, as the gangsters are pursued back to the Italian town of Ostia for a final showdown.