A sperm whale, an estuarine crocodile, a sabre-tooth tiger and a mastodon, all threatened with extinction, prelude this story of four men destined to set a course for the future of the world.It is 25 BC and four slaves row in a galley for the Roman Empire: Britannius, sentenced for committing rape; Himilco, for molestation and treason; Enoch, for wounding a centurion and implicated in supplying the asps for Queen Cleopatra's suicide; and Hanno, for killing his owner.Following a shipwreck, three of them are recaptured but the fourth escapes. And so starts an epic journey for all four that spans the entire world with their individual adventures. Constantly hounded and pursued by the overseer from the original galley, each is re-captured, escapes again, and thinks about the reason for the journeys, especially after they all unexpectedly meet again after years on the run.What is it all for? It will take the universe to explain...