A Spartan family are torn apart by a brutal law that forces them to abandon their youngest son - born lame - to the elements. But young Kleidemos is spared a lonely death by a shepherd, who raises him among the Helot peasants.
Renamed Talos, the child becomes a man, and witnesses the cruel oppression of the Helots by the Spartan society he was born in to. Meanwhile, Brithos - Talos's brother by birth - is trained as a warrior and joins the ranks of the legendary 300, bound for Thermopylae.
In a world dominated by the ferocious, relentless conflict between the Persian Empire and the city-states of Greece, the brothers live out their separate fates. But when the savagery of war reunites them, Talos and Brithos will find their loyalties tested as never before. As each brother reshapes his destiny, one will have the chance to lead his people to triumph.