Plot: About the struggle between the Roman Empire and its rebellious conquest Judaea, and two best friends caught in a terrible moment in history.

Plot: Alice, a British-Nigerian PR exec, travels to the Niger Delta to represent an oil firm during a hostage crisis.

Alice, a British Nigerian PR exec, travels to the Niger Delta to represent an oil firm during a hostage crisis.

In Italy, year 1100, the Northern lands are ruled by the German Emperor Barbarossa. His dream is to also conquer the lands in the center and the South to revive the empire that once belonged to Charles the Great. But in the North, a young man from Milan named Alberto Da Giussano has formed an army of 900 men all from different cities known as the company of death. His dream is to defeat the Emperor and give freedom back to the Northern lands.

In 1939 Hortense, illegitimate but intelligent and ambitious, is brought up on Jamaica with the family of charismatic, free-thinking Michael, who joins the Air Force when war breaks out and goes to England. After the war, Hortense, now a qualified teacher, makes a marriage of convenience to Gilbert Joseph, paying for his passage to England on condition he sends for her. She not only hopes to see Michael again but believes that living in Britain will give her more scope. When she arrives in London in 1948, she is extremely disappointed by the one room in which they must live and the obvious colour prejudice. Queenie, their liberal landlady, is also a woman used to disappointment, marrying decent but dull and sexless Bernard to get her away from the family farm. Whilst Bernard - now presumed missing - was in the Air Force during the war, she first took in lodgers from the armed forces, partly for the company, including Michael, with whom she had sex.