This is Taylor Caldwell’s greatest literary achievement. She worked for forty years on this novel about the physician and evangelist Luke.

We see Rome is raised in marble, we stay in lowly Nazareth, we are in marine towns by the Mediterranean, we are in castles, on board ships and inside temples. Together with Luke we observe religious rites and attend decadent feasts, we experience a prominent meeting with Tiberius and we listen to the words of Pontius Pilate.  

We travel through the childhood of Luke. We meet his relatives and see how he is esteemed for his beauty and manliness. We get a plausible portrayal of the Greek and Roman world; we run into warlords and slaves, all the while Luke strives to find the deepest secrets of medicine and fights for his beliefs, until he in the end himself becomes a role model of spiritual strength.