Having betrayed King Darius, Miltiades a duplicitous Athenian renegade on the run from the Persian Empire, is forced to make for the churning instability of new democratic Athens. He has to convince the hostile, frightened Athenians that if they don't fight the Persians then, like him, they are doomed. Athens seethes with enemies who want him dead and the only person he can trust is his Luck Bringer the ungovernable teenaged Mandrocles.

Against a background of treachery and violence Miltiades fights his battles in the courts and councils while Mandrocles fights his in the streets, theatre, bars and brothels. As the Persian threat grows and the danger within threatens Miltiades chooses to fight at marathon where the ragged citizen army, including some of the greatest figures in the ancient world faces the overwhelming might of the Persian Immortals in 24 hours that changed history.