Daphne's world is turned upside down when her city rebels against the Roman Empire. Romans storm the walls and victorious soldiers vent their bestial passions upon the helpless population. Daphne is a pretty young virgin, exactly the kind that fetches the best price at market, so the Roman officers separate them to protect her and others like her. Daphne is put on the market. One by one the girls are bought by odious Roman men. Then a Roman lady arrives at the market and buys Daphne, saving her from a fate worse than death. Lady Calpurnia makes Daphne her body-servant: her duties are to undress and dress her owner, and to wash her in the bath. But Lady Calpurnia already has a body-servant, Lyda, who reacts with insane jealousy. The cruel Calpurnia soon puts Lyda in her place, and makes Daphne her pet. Daphne learns to soothe her owner's body in the bath and in her bed too, and Lady Calpurnia teaches Daphne all the secrets of joy that women can know together in the night. One day Daphne makes the mistake of being too forward with her owner, addressing her as if they were equals, and it seems for a moment that her fall from grace has come. But when Daphne offers grovelling apology, Lady Calpurnia accepts it. Naturally Daphne must be punished, and she goes across Lyda's knee to be thrashed with a hair-brush as Lady Calpurnia watches. After Daphne is allowed into her owner's bed and allowed to demonstrate her devotion. From then on Daphne and Lyda compete for which one can show the greatest degree of submission. Lady Calpurnia grows increasingly cruel to Daphne, but the slave accepts any amount of abuse if it will allow her to remain the favourite of her beloved owner. But by this time Daphne and Lyda have both come to see that their place is to submit, and they both embrace the pain for the sake of giving themselves wholly to the mistress they adore.