Vorenus and Pullo return to the Collegium in Rome with Vorenus' family, but some of the 'changes' that Pullo had warned him about regarding his two daughters Vorena both the Elder and Younger, as well as his wife's son, begin to manifest themselves into hostility and resentment.
But Vorenus is completely oblivious to this, and is too blissfully happy to return to the role of 'father'. Meanwhile, Octavian finally returns and manages to negotiate the Senate Consul's seat from a scheming Cicero.

Cicero is finally undone by his duplicity in the form of Titus Pullo, acting upon Octavian's request to assassinate all supporters of Brutus in Rome. Pullo and Vorenus enjoy a happy if counterfeit outing with their families in the countryside to hide their assassin mission.
Vorena the Elder's dangerous dalliance with one of Mimeo's men continues, and the torrid affair between Octavia and Agrippa escalates. Atia's casual cruelty to ask for the assassination of people she doesn't like results in complete disaster for Octavia's friend Jocasta.

Inconsolable at the death of Brutus at Philippi, Servilia makes her final bid to gain the ultimate vengeance against Atia. Meanwhile, Eirene and Gaia have a major falling-out, prompting Eirene to demand that Pullo properly chastise the slave. When he does, the dynamic between the two of them changes in a violent and unexpected fashion.
King Herod engages Mark Antony as a reluctant ally by offering a generous gift of 20,000 pounds of gold.

Octavian takes a new bride, Livia, and then introduces her to his family in a startling way... by having her witness the punishment he metes out to Atia and Octavia, for secretly defying the social constraints established through the facade of Octavia's marriage to Mark Antony. The vengeful Gaia carries out her plan to poison Eirene, which produces most dire consequences for Pullo, and no one else is the wiser.
Meanwhile, Octavian, Antony, Maecenas, and their associates barely maintain their relationships of congenial contempt and hypocrisy, as everyone tries to figure out who has duped whom with the disappearance of the gold that was Herod's 'gift.'

Seven years have passed since Antony's departure from Rome, and the former commander, dissipated and debauched - held in thrall by the charms and sexual prowess of his new bride, Cleopatra, withholds precious shipments of grain from Rome, where people die in the streets from hunger.
Unable to incite a war with Antony and Egypt without committing political suicide, Octavian sends Atia and Octavia to Alexandria to mediate and reason with Antony; a strategy which proves predictably unsuccessful.

Space isn't vast and empty space but a dynamic, cosmic storm. It's a storm that could kill us, but without it we wouldn't be here at all. This is a story about the weird connections, the near misses, the lucky breaks that created this amazing world. For 4.5 billion years our planet has been battered and bruised and punched and pummeled but we're still standing. It's actually the battle that's built us and this is the tale of the tape.
Ever wonder how our planet got here? It was born in a cosmic storm. The violence could have destroyed us, but instead it made us.