Set in 91AD in Roman Britain, Aurelia Marcella is a young innkeeper from Italy and runs the Oak Tree Mansio on the road to York A string of savage murders disrupts her peaceful life, and she and her Roman friends find themselves under attack from a secret native war-band, the Shadow-men, whose aim is to drive all Romans out A traveller, Quintus, is nearly killed close to the inn, and her and Aurelia must track down the rebel warriors and identify their mysterious masked leader, the Shadow of Death Can they find and destroy the Shadow of Death before his campaign of terror turns into open rebellion, so that all Romans must get out or die?