In 227 BC, a young woman decides taking her own life is the only way she can escape the pain and futility of her life.  Yet when her current patron, politician and schemer, Glaucos, succumbs to an untimely death, Tessa of Delos, the most highly paid and sought after courtesan on the island of Rhodes feels an unfamiliar seed of hope take root in her heart.

Accustomed to the hard work of a slave, Nikos knows first hand the joy of freedom, and in honour of the father who saved him masquerades as a servant to ingratiate himself in to the home of his father's enemy, the famous Glaucos of Rhodes.

Spiro craves Glaucus' power and his beautiful hetaera Tessa in equal measure and he will gladly sink to whatever depths he needs to acquire both.

Fuelled by desperation and her burning desire for the freedom of her body, mind and spirit, Tessa embarks on a journey which may transform her life or just as surely, destroy it.