Circa 403-404 CE. The Gupta Empire has reached its zenith under its greatest ruler yet, Maharaja Chandragupta II Vikramaditya. But with glory comes mischief. Mahakavi Kalidasa, the great poet-dramatist and one of the Navaratnas of the kingdom, heads the state intelligence network to weed out threats, internal and external. On the eve of the annual Buddhist procession, a spate of shocking murders casts a dark shadow on the glorious city of Pataliputra, with corpses of unidentified foreigners and the city's social and administrative elite turning up one by one. Who is behind these killings and why? To crack the mystery, the Mahakavi enlists the help of Shaunaka, one of his unofficial spies. As the keenly observant but idealistic guptachara pursues his secret mission, the young man gets a taste of real-world affairs-deception, religious fanaticism and a 100-year-old secret.