Julia Cornelius perishes in agony within her family's subterranean dungeon, tortured and murdered for crimes fabricated by her doted-upon adopted sister. Waking up in her bedchamber twenty-four hours before her scheduled execution, Julia refuses to play the designated scapegoat. She shreds her ceremonial gown before her stunned brothers, slaps the family favorite, and forces her disloyal fiancé to renounce their betrothal forever.
Bypassing her father's tyrannical authority, Julia kneels before the Roman Emperor to take the sacred vows of a Vestal Priestess, securing imperial immunity that no patrician house can touch. Unlocking a divine healing spring concealed within her mother's pendant, Julia cures a devastating urban plague in the public square. Escorted by the feared Praetorian commander Titus, Julia rises as Rome's revered savior.
