Rescued as a baby from a shipwrecked Roman galley, Beric is raised in a British tribe but is never fully accepted by them. When disaster and bad times come to the clan, they believe it is down to Beric - that he has brought bad luck and misfortune to them - and they cast him out. Left alone without family or friends, Beric is sold into slavery in Rome and then condemned to a life on the rowing-bench of a Roman galley. With danger and death all around him, Beric must free himself and try and build a new life.