Mount Vesuvius has awakened. Fifteen-year-old slave, Mira, saw the coming burial of Herculaneum and the death of its people in a vision. She vowed to save the Roman child in her care, but first she must escape her stubborn owner and the slave set to watch her. Mira begs her guard to let her slip away, or flee with her, before they share the fate of the town when the volcano sends its fiery death raging down the mountain.