The Delphis, an ancient trading vessel, sets off to map what lies outside the feared waterway known as the Pillars of Herakles. It is about 500 BCE and Dubb, the ship's navigator, immediately comes into conflict with its captain, a man who loves the gods too much.

Unknown to either of them, The Delphis is being watched. A network of spies, working for a notorious Carthaginian bureaucrat, intends to block their progress. The region’s lucrative mining interests must be protected, at all costs.

Things go badly wrong for both the bureaucrat and The Delphis. Dubb battles his skipper, is viciously beaten and is plagued by self doubt. There is a nuisance stowaway on board and a woman so beautiful the navigator can scarcely breathe in her presence.

The bureaucrat becomes confused. His superiors in Carthage send him contradictory orders. Some tell him to sabotage The Delphis immediately. Others to let the ship travel on. What is going on in Carthage?

This multi-voiced, historical adventure is fast paced and gripping. It explores what it was like to live in a world which was thought to end at the Strait of Gibraltar. Everything beyond it was foreign, strange and dangerous. Why risk the gods’ displeasure to travel there?

This is the prequel to the first book in the series By the Horn of the South.