The World Beyond

429 B. C. After losing her family to the plague that strikes Athens in the second year of its war with Sparta, fifteen-year-old Rhea goes to live with her aunt and uncle. But when she fails to measure up to her aunt's expectations, she finds herself facing an arranged marriage to a cruel man more than twice her age. As she struggles to find a way to avoid the unwanted marriage, she hears about a handsome young athlete named Doros and resolves to catch a glimpse of him-no easy task in a society that believes daughters and wives belong in the home and should not go out in public without a chaperone. And is one glimpse enough? When she climbs the Acropolis to appeal to the goddess Athena for help, she encounters another young man who intrigues her: Maron, a gifted sculptor and a slave. As their friendship grows, he urges her to risk everything for the life she wants. But does she have the courage to take such a leap? With time running out, Rhea must decide whether to resign herself to the loveless marriage her society and the gods decree, or defy them and choose her own destiny in this poignant coming-of-age tale of love and the longing to be free.