Living in 2002, Stella Mante can remember back two thousand years when she was a ten-year-old girl named Mary whose best friend is a boy she nicknames Santer. An orphan herself, the young Mary is intrigued by Santer's mother, whose name is also Mary. Her interest deepens when, as teenagers, Santer's mother helps them both to secretly flee to Alexandria, the dazzling city of Cleopatra's snowy palace, and the greatest university in the known world. As Santer fights against his destiny, Mary is drawn more and more into mysterious events that threaten both their lives, and trigger her own life quest.