In the year 338 BC on the plain of Chaeronea, a war was fought between the allied armies of Thebes and Athens against the might of Macedon, ruled by King Philip and his son Alexander the Great. In that bloody battle, Thebes was defeated and lost almost every man of its exclusive fighting force called the Sacred Band. Nikanoras, born the only son of an aristocrat, is sent to train with a mentor and find a male lover in order to be selected to serve with the Sacred Band of Thebes. Unknown to Nikanoras, his mentor holds a treacherous secret over his father and is in love with his mother. After Nikanoras is sent away to training, his mother and mentor kill his father and hope Nikanoras will die in war. Throughout the murderous intrigue, Nikanorasa one saving grace is his loverabeautiful Meleagros, the only thing in his life that is stable. Together they face their destinyato live or die in battle.