There are only two kinds of women in the Piraeus, Athens' gritty port. When a woman who is neither blinks into the shade of a noontime tavern, Skaphis finds himself sucked into the underside of Athenian society, black-market trading, extortion, political payback, repressed desire, and murder. In 400 BC, Athens is at a low point: with its fleet forcibly disbanded, its walls torn down by the Spartans, and its political power only recently wrested back from the oligarchs. As a former fleet rower, and a democratic counter-revolutionary, Skaphis is used to fighting for his life. But his weapons have always been his strong oar-arms, his dagger and his spear. Now, in order to survive, he must use his wits, and even the law.