It is the thirteenth book in his Roma Sub Rosa series of mystery stories set in the final decades of the Roman Republic, although it is chronologically the first.

(September 92 BC) As they travel past the ruins of the city of Corinth, destroyed half a century earlier during the Achaean War, Gordianus and Antipater get involved in the gruesome murder of a group of Roman soldiers and tourists.

(Autumn and winter 92 BC) At the city of Rhodes the pair see the fallen remains of the Colossus, and investigate the destruction of an ancient plaster model of the giant statue.

(Spring 91 BC) As they visit ancient Babylon and view the massive walls and the famous Hanging Gardens, Gordianus gets caught up in a ghost story that turns into a murder mystery.

(June 91 BC) As they visit the ancient city of Memphis and the Giza Necropolis, Gordianus and Antipater see the largest and oldest of the wonders, the Great Pyramid, and the Finder must solve the Riddle of the Sphinx.