In this reimagining of the Iliad, the love story is not of Helen and Paris but of Achilles and his beloved, Patroclus. Joined as children, both trained by the centaur Chiron, they become lovers and then, inevitably, warriors. Even more subversive than the choice to tell a different love story is the one to make Patroclus the protagonist: seen through his eyes, the war is not one of great battles or heroes but small acts of care, fierce love, and the meanest hope. But Patroclus knows the fate of his lover, and they both know there will be no escape.