The novel begins in Pompeii, a prosperous port town spread at the foot of majestic Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy. Vesuvius, then an active if theretofore relatively quiet volcano, broods in the background of the story, until its eruption takes center stage in the book's final chapters. However, it is not the dramatic landscape of the city which is especially attractive but rather the full-bodied texture of daily life unfolding in a small port town of the mighty and far-flung Roman Empire.

The reader is exposed to the sounds and smells of Pompeiian life among the insulae (apartment houses) and fora (town squares) of the city while Yarbro effectively yet unobtrusively establishes the larger historical and political background of her novel. Part of this background is made up of information readers may remember from history classes in school, such as the civil unrest and succession of Emperors during...