Raised like sisters, Marianne and Salome are indulged with riches, position and learning - a rare thing for females in Jerusalem. But Marianne has a further gift: an illness has left her with visions and the power of prophecy. It is her prophesying that drives the two friends into a world filled with men who vow to find a messiah to rid Judea of Rome. It also delivers them into a secret sect headed by a mysterious young philosopher, Seth of Damascus. With Seth the girls flee to Egypt where they study philosophy, mathematics and astronomy in the Great Library of Alexandria.