Agrippina plots the path to power of her beloved boy in Imperial Rome. The boy Nero lives. His mother Agrippina has married her way to power, tangling the Emperor Claudius in her skirts. The emperor may have a son and heir of his own, but Agrippina sees no obstacles to her ambition. Rome is a path through a marsh, lit by torches. Those who walk it are always one step from disaster – and the road itself is treacherous, slippery with blood. Claudius may have the world at his feet, but he has Agrippina in his bed.