antinoös, beloved of the emperor hadrian, drowned in the nile under mysterious circumstances in 130ad, and the grief-stricken emperor deified the boy. louis, stranded on st. croix by the recession, has been forced to rely on his good looks, charm and sexual proficiency. a satisfied customer invites him to visit her in manhattan, where he meets a businessman who hires him to represent his cleaning products in greece. in salonika a cunning smuggler cons louis into delivering a mysterious package to adrian in budapest, where marco, adrian's handsome companion, meets him with hostility and suspicion. adrian, a super rich arms dealer, is delighted with louis and the contents of the package, which he believes can be used to clone antinoös, and he hires louis to manage the project. on his way to south korea, louis is hooked up with christina, a beautiful, intelligent and surprisingly capable young woman; they fall involuntarily in love, and the project evolves into a scheme. sex, money, mystery, bromance, romance, intrigue, suspense, tragedy, comic relief, surrogate mothers, reluctant fathers...