When Claudia is caught by the Security Police in the act of doping racehorses, it's the least of her problems. The owner of the racehorses, a certain Hylas the Greek, isn't very happy about it, either. Seeking refuge with the tall, dark, aristocratic Leo at the Villa Arcadia in the Adriatic seems the perfect solution. Shaded by figs and pomegranates on an island of steep, wooded cliffs, sandy coves and hillsides redolent with a thousand aromatic herbs, is there a better place to ride out the storm? Here, Claudia has only Leo's dysfunctional family to contend with. But then, a pirate warship anchors in the bay, and suddenly Arcadia is no longer an idyll. The past and the present have become dangerously and inextricably linked. And, too late, Claudia discovers that 300 miles isn't far enough from Rome to escape either the Security Police, Hylas the Greek - or pure evil.