Mark Antony, famous warrior and legendary lover, expects that he will be Julius Caesar s successor. But when Caesar is murdered, his eighteen-year-old nephew, Octavian, is named as his heir. No one, least of all Antony, expects Octavian to last; but his youth and slight frame conceal a remarkable determination and a sharp strategic mind. Under Octavian s rule, the empire is divided, with Antony responsible for the fabulously rich East.

There he meets Cleopatra, who is still mourning Caesar, her lover and the father of her only son. Despite his marriage to Octavian s sister, Antony is fascinated by the Egyptian queen. Drawn together by grief, ambition, passion, and politics, they begin a very public love affair, and the tension between Antony and Octavian, already simmering, soon threatens to erupt into war.