In Athens of the 8th century AD, a city where the haze from the dust of its former glory has not yet settled amidst the whirlwind of changes in the Byzantine Empire, a Sarantapichaina will stand tall, trying not to become a plaything of the times. Through her narration, she will present the works and the state of a woman who surpassed the limits of cruelty. This is her cousin and namesake, Irene, who from a noblewoman of Athens will become the empress of a vast empire in dark times, remaining known in history as Irene the Athenian. In the vortex of iconoclasm, she will prove to be darker than the dark times in which she lives and... reigns. The young Athenian will soon determine the fate of an entire empire from both the foreground and the background.

Giorgos Leonardos, the multi-award-winning author, once again illuminates with his novel a dark era and an enigmatic personality. In an environment characterized by intrigue, machinations, greed, and excessive ambition, an Athenian woman will try to maintain her reason and judgment and respond to the duty that fate has reserved for her: to serve her empress cousin, watching her transform from an innocent girl into a ruthless schemer, surpassing all human measures in her revenge.

A gripping novel in which the mural of an era and the psychological portrait of a mysterious personality unfold.