When Julius Caesar is stabbed to death in Rome, 19-year-old Gaius Octavius is on the other side of the Adriatic Sea. Despite his youth and illness-riddled past, Octavius dreams of glory, and Caesar’s death might just be the answer. Determined to write his own fate, Octavius sails to Rome with his close friend, Marcus Agrippa, who has followed the rich, charming, and ambitious Octavius since they were young.

Meanwhile in Rome, Marcus Antonius has seized power, though his heart longs for his mistress, Cleopatra, who has fled back to Egypt. As Octavius goes head to head with Antonius, his friendship with Agrippa slips into something tantalizing and forbidden, threatening all that they know….