Why are sheep in a remote Egyptian village cutting their own throats? That's the mystery Emperor Justinian inexplicably sends his Lord Chamberlain John the Eunuch to Egypt to solve. Is it because John desperately needs to clear himself of accusations he murdered a senator in the Hippodrome? Mehenopolis is a pilgrim destination thanks to its ancient shrine to a snake deity as well as the home of the late sheep. It is nearly as byzantine in its ways and undercurrents as Constantinople. Among the suspicious characters John encounters are a pretentious local landowner battling a self-styled magician for control of the lucrative shrine, an exiled heretical cleric, an itinerant bee-keeper, and a disgraced charioteer. Meanwhile, back in Constantinople, John's good friend Anatolius does his best to trace the senator's murderer and clear John. At stake are not only John's honor - and his head - but also the family with whom he recently reunited, a family now in danger of being broken apart. Or worse.