Alexandria, 3rd century. The splendors of Egypt have faded, and the country has become a gray province of a decaying Roman Empire. The era is changing: Christianity is the official religion, but it has not taken root among the people. The old gods resist death, and magic and science, administration and sacred worship coexist in the narrow streets of the sprawling metropolis beneath the famous lighthouse.

Indifferent to the changes and decay, and oblivious to the barbarian invasions that are crumbling the borders of the Western Empire, life in the court and palaces is polarized by the two great human passions: love and power.

This is the magnificent setting where the particular destiny of three characters is played out: Ahram, a powerful navigator, emblem of courage and masculine strength; Krito, an androgynous philosopher, symbol of rationality and character consistency; and an elusive and sensual woman who possesses the ability to change her name. A woman who will enter Ahram's life when Anoptis, the great steward of the villa of Tanuris, buys her for his master in the slave market.

Ahram falls suddenly in love with the girl, who claims to be called Irenia, and between them begins an intense love story full of sensuality.

But, as Krito will soon suspect, behind Irenia lie mysterious circumstances, more enigmatic than her rescue on the coast by coral fishermen, even more so than her initiation into a group of religious women who believe in the feminine nature of Jesus: a fantastic and almost blasphemous transformation that could take the love story with Ahram beyond death or destroy it prematurely.