Marcus a military officer goes to war and is injured and believed to be dead. In his hometown of Pompeii a bad earthquake happens, and his girlfriend Valeria and her brother Ennius are orphaned. They are sold to Quintus Laronius as slaves, but Laronius is murdered. Marcus and Valeria do all they can to solve the mystery of the murder, with the evil governor Chelidone holding them back with his love for Valeria. They eventually get Tiberius a tribune to save Valeria, Ennius and the other slaves of Quintus Laronius, who are accused of his murder, but the volcano Vesuvius erupts sending ash and pyroclastic flows to Pompeii burying it, Marcus and Valeria, and their friends cause Chelidone to die in the eruption, but they survive.