Have you ever longed to be someone else, to live someone else's life, even for just a moment? For many years, Cassia has been living other people's lives. She's traveled through time with four people, inextricably linked to them by a catastrophic event which occurred over two thousand years ago. Currently, she is inhabiting the body of a dead drug addict. But at the beginning of her journey, Cassia is a Roman girl betrothed to Darius Corvenus - a nobleman with a secret who plans to use Cassia to save his own neck. Instead of exploiting her, however, he falls for her, and slowly comes to terms with his own wickedness. This revelation causes him to break off their engagement, but Cassia won't take no for an answer and her pursuit of Darius leads to tragedy. When he is found guilty of murder, Darius is sent to Pello Island, a prison colony just south of Sicily, and what happens there will change their lives forever.