For twenty years now, having survived many campaigns and battles, Crispus has reigned in Videssa. But again the Emperor and his empire face difficult trials. A strange heresy is gaining strength in one of the provinces. Heretics - fanasiotes - claim that the material world is evil, and murder is good, since it helps free the soul from the trap of the flesh. The bloody teaching is gaining more and more adherents, and eventually this results in open rebellion. Having opposed the rebels, the Emperor takes his sons with him. However, at the most crucial moment, the eldest of them - the heir to the throne - suddenly disappears from his father’s camp and declares himself on the side of the fanasiots: the new teaching has found a response in his soul...