Pontius Pilate is an old man, retired, living in Sicily and at present in Italy for the hot springs at Misenum to relieve his gout. He meets an old friend of his from nearly thirty years ago, and the two old men get to talking about their days in Syria and Jerusalem. Pilate is bitter over the way Rome has persistently refused to support his actions in putting down rebellion among the stubborn Jews. When his friend Aelius Lamia remembers a beautiful Jewish woman who left his arms to follow an iterinant preacher called Jesus of Nazareth - does Pilate remember him? But no, Pilate, whose name is alive only because of the man he condemned to die, has no memory at all of the man called Jesus...