sentences:  Inspired by a dream about Hercules, Flavia persuades her friends to gather gossip from all over Ostia to solve the mystery of Cartilia Poplicola, and thus break up her romantic relationship with Flavia's widowed father Marcus.The novel is set three months after "The Dolphins of Laurentum" and six months after the children solved their first mystery.Though their loan was paid off, the Geminus household is still suffering financially from the loss of the "Myrtilla".