As the Roman Empire crumbles and barbarians settle in the provinces, Marcus Astorius, a soldier and part-time assassin works for the Praeses, the Governor of Hispania Carthaginiensis. The Praeses sends him to retrieve the stolen Judas Scrolls - an heretical chapter of the Bible, lest it cause unrest in the province. When a vision appears before him he withdraws, defeated and bewildered. Disgraced and dismissed from service he farms and breeds horses with his son Julius, but his past will not relinquish him so easily. Sheltering an heretical priest, he invokes the wrath of the Praeses and fleeing with his son, he becomes a reluctant supporter of Sophia, the beautiful queen of the Arevaci tribe, in the northern city of Clunia. There, against all odds, besieged by a Roman legion, he finally comes to terms with whom he his and what he truly believes in.