A group of scientists is sent to the planet Arkanar to help the local civilization, which is in the Medieval phase of its own history, to find the right path to progress. Their task is a difficult one: they cannot interfere violently and in no case can they kill. The scientist Rumata tries to save the local intellectuals from their punishment and cannot avoid taking a position.
In an age of Gladiators, the power that was Rome held its empire together with the might of its armies, the sweat and tears of its conquests, and the cheers and bloodlust of its citizens – glorified in the deadly spectacle of The Arena. Stolen from their homelands, the fiery Druid maiden Bodicia, exotic slave girl Jessemina, and the powerful barbarian Flavius, are pitted against each other as gladiators by the sadistic Roman Governor Timarchus. Banished by Caesar, Timarchus unleashes his frustration on his gladiators, staging extravagant spectacles of combat, orgy and death. In a violent world where only the strong survive, love and hate, life and death, are separated by an instant.