Rufus, keeper of the Emperor’s elephant, joins the Roman ruler Claudius as he reluctantly takes part in the invasion of Britain and the epic battles which will decide the future of the country for the next 400 years. To stay alive Rufus must not only outwit the British war leader Caratacus, but also his own Emperor’s devious spymaster, the slippery Narcissus. Action on an epic scale sprawls across the meadows and downland of southern England as the two sides manoeuvre into position for the final climatic struggle that will seal Claudius’s position.