Andac the narrator is the son of a Syrian and an Alan. Although he is a freeborn Roman citizen, he has always regarded himself as an outsider, and for this reason he feels that he is singularly equipped to tell the story of a young Roman matron who deliberately made herself an outsider by exiling herself from the arisrtocratic circle in which she was born. In spite of her fabulous wealth, Natalia is determined to emulate her famous grandmother, who...