In the first century, Flavia Albia—daughter of Marcus Didius Falco—has taken over her father's business as a private informer, and she seeks the person who is staging brutal murders in some of the most beautiful buildings in Rome. So far, the only clue was the phrase that one survivor managed to croak, "The undertaker did it." With little to go on and bodies starting to pile up, Albia has to unravel the strangest mystery of her career in short order.