A routine murder case turns into a national emergency when detective Darla Smith finds a picture of a Roman scroll on a camera chip concealed on the unidentified murder victim's body. The scroll is from an alternate reality where the Roman Empire survived nearly unchanged since the first century AD and Europeans never discovered America.

Deadly diseases lurk in that alternate Rome and contact with it is strictly forbidden. Darla and Bureau of Timeline Integrity analyst Scott White work to figure out who is illegally bringing in Roman artifacts. That investigation entwines with other mysteries. Why did the alternate timeline version of Rome stop changing? What is the mysterious near-human creature that also appears on the chip? Is Bernhardt Sloan, Burgen Industries' menacing security chief, involved in the murder? A threat from Darla's past also dogs them as a trail of clues leads Darla and Scott through cyberspace, decaying rustbelt towns, and an Indian controlled alternate North America toward Rome.