Historical children's novel set in A.D. (C.E.) 25 in the Roman province of Palestine. King Herod Antipas made Sepphoris the most important city of the Galilee. The Jewish population called it Zippori. James, a farmer's son and his family suffer at the hands of the Romans. Sold as a slave because his father cannot pay the yearly Roman taxes, he ends up in Herod's household in Jerusalem. When all seems lost, James is ransomed by an Essene man.