Set in the year 536 ? a time remembered as the year without a summer ? this novel follows Lucius, a quiet imperial scribe in Constantinople, as he witnesses the slow unraveling of a world that believes itself eternal.

When the sky darkens after a distant volcanic eruption and the sun loses its warmth, the empire does not collapse in a single moment. Instead, order erodes quietly: harvests fail, hunger spreads, the price of bread rises, and the familiar rhythm of the city falters. Through Lucius's records ? first careful, then fragmented, and finally abandoned ? we watch a civilization confront something it cannot conquer with laws, faith, or memory.