Yael is a young Jewish girl growing up in Northern Israel in the first century. She secretly sleeps with the nephew of one of her teachers. Overcome by the power of her sin, she flees her small village and begins a seven-day journey on foot to Jerusalem, where she hopes to receive a bead that negates her fornication, as well as meet a nice Jewish man to marry.

Meanwhile, the Roman military gathers outside of Jerusalem and prepares siege engines to destroy the temple. Rufus, second in command of the Roman army, struggles with the mortality of obliterating the holiest place in Jewish culture, as his father was Cornelius, the great Roman Centurion from Caesarea and follower of Christ.

Mishi is the only child of a Palestinian family who has been offered to the community to serve as a rabbi for the next generation. As he finishes his training in Jerusalem, he meets Yael, who he tells he has no animals to sacrifice for her to gain atonement. But Yael discovers that Mishi has been illegally hording month's worth of food and supplies in a hidden passage, where he plans to survive the pending assault from Rome while everyone else deals with starvation.

As the temple begins to fall, rumors spreads about a Messiah who has come and gone. Now Rufus must chase the story, Mishi by his side, or face the wrath of the Roman Empire for missing a man claiming such power. Yael follows their lead, desperate to be cleansed and holding onto any glimmer of home for a life after Jerusalem falls.