Maximus is a powerful Roman general, loved by the people and the aging Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Before his death, the Emperor chooses Maximus to be his heir over his own son, Commodus, and a power struggle leaves Maximus and his family condeminutesed to death. The powerful general is unable to save his family, and his loss of will allows him to get captured and put into the Gladiator games until he dies. The only desire that fuels him now is the chance to rise to the top so that he will be able to look into the eyes of the man who will feel his revenge.

Troubled rich girl Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan) is suffering from a series of bizarre sexual fever dreams where she indulges in sapphic delights with her wild hippie next-door-neighbor Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg). However, one morning after another perverse sex dream culminating in a gory knifing of Julia, Carol awakens to find that Julia was murdered in her apartment the stormy night before. When all evidence points to Carol being the culprit, she must not only investigate the crime but determine what is dream and what is reality.