A city that feeds on hunger. A baker who carries its weight. Rome. In the gritty streets of the Subura, bread is the only promise that matters. For Lucius Plautius Pistor, every loaf is a struggle against the rising tide of debt and the shadow of Claudius, a ruthless grain merchant who owns the city's hunger. When a debt falls due at high noon, Lucius must find a way to protect his family and his father's legacy before the ledger swallows them whole. Supported by his determined wife Aelia and a mysterious beggar named Maximus, Lucius discovers that in a city ruled by blood and coin, simple kindness is the most dangerous weapon of all. A Baker's Toil is the gripping first book in the An Etched Coin series, a story of ordinary lives, extraordinary courage, and the price of honour in Ancient Rome.