In 1914, as the nations of the West are making a play for political power and oil in the Middle East, Somerville, a British archaeologist, finds his excavation of a long-buried Assyrian palace threatened by construction of a new railroad to Baghdad.
As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young and innocent woman, blood that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail.
An itinerant troupe of actors, hiding a priest among them, unwittingly hits upon the truth when they devise a play out of a murder that has taken place in the town they are visiting.
