The young Roman Publius becomes a victim of dirty intrigues and is forced to flee. After a series of misadventures, he ends up in Judea and becomes a participant in the Maccabean Wars. Now his fate is connected with a people he does not know and does not understand. He will meet military leaders, heroes and kings, battles and campaigns, miracles, and, of course, love await him. This historical novel is full of inaccuracies and, if you want, you can consider it to be set in an alternate reality. In this strange reality, everything is really wrong: men in it love, suffer, fight and build, but women love, suffer, give birth, raise children and know how to wait. Quite alternative, isn't it? There, in some parallel worlds, the words “friendship” and “honor” are not empty sounds, and the word “love” is something more than a word. I’ll tell you a secret: some of the people I incredibly love and respect have been living in this reality for a long time, and I feel infinitely sorry for those for whom this reality is an alternative.