On a cold night in the year 1514, Urania, the Greek goddess of astonomy, inspires Nicolaus Copernicus to re-imagine the cosmos with the sun at the centre -- a crime for which Zeus banishes her from Olympus. Then Julian Augustus, former emperor of Rome and an agent of Zeus, offers her a bargain: Find one mortal who can grasp the immensity of the universe without going mad, or else live in exile forever.
With help from Promethus, the Titan, and Kynisca of Sparta, the first woman to win at the Olympic Games, Urania works with Tycho, Kepler, Galileo, and other scientists of the Renaissance, hoping one of them can win the gamble for her. But Julian arranges for accidents, turns of fate, and even the Inquisition, to interfere with their work. Even Prometheus has an agenda of his own.
As her search continues, Urania finds the consequences of winning to be worse than the price of losing.
