Summer 80 BC: While they are relaxing at home, Bethesda tells Gordianus the classic Egyptian folk tale of King Rhampsinitus and his treasure vault.

October 78 BC: An old soldier is haunted by visions of his victims during Sulla's civil wars, and a relative of the late dictator is found dead.

December 77 BC: Gordianus must help his patron Lucius Claudius recover his lost set of silver items made for the Saturnalia celebrations.

90 BC: While living in Alexandria at the age of twenty, Gordianus must investigate the murder of a domestic cat, sacred to the Egyptians, before it triggers a riot.

Spring 73 BC: In the titular story of the collection, Gordianus is called to the Temple of Vesta in the middle of the night, to see if there is any truth to the accusation that Lucius Sergius Catalina has had an affair with a Vestal Virgin.