In the present world, in the present time, Quinn makes a night-time patrol of the museum in which he works. As is his custom, he pauses before the Roman statue of the Lady Faustina to embrace her. On this occasion, however, he feels her come alive in his arms, finds himself not in his museum of the 21st century but in her Pompeii of 79 AD. She has bought him as her slave. As Faustina and her maids take their pleasure of Quinn, during those last days of Pompeii, there is one who can only look on with longing, the least privileged of the household, the lowly Eucratia. As she witnesses the torment of Quinn continuing, and the volcano above the city growing more restless, her own passion builds until it too will become something which cannot be contained..... all in the shadow of Vesuvius, which is soon to erupt.