Joanna is the widow of Loukas, her beloved who died fighting pirates on the Great Sea. Decimus is the Roman senator who rescued her and her adopted daughter from slave runners, and he's also the man who has fallen in love with the graceful and resilient woman. Joanne craves solitude in which to mourn. Senator Decimus Varitor returns to Rome with reluctance, bound to the senate for too many more years. However, he can only tolerate being away from her for a time. Decimus searches for her in the wilds of Israel where she hides from the world. She leaves the camp, not knowing she and her friend Rebecca will never live there again. A search for ten-year-old twins in a driving rainstorm through the wilderness, Rebecca's illness, and then her adopted daughter's injury at the paws of a bear force them to Jerusalem. When Decimus finds her, she is following another man, Jesus. His heart broken, Decimus must return to Rome alone.