It is the year 400 B.C. Chaereas is in Syracuse, where he falls in love with a woman called Callirhoe, whose beauty is ethereal, almost supernatural. Callirhoe is the daughter of a Peloponnesian War hero named Hermocrates, who is not only a war hero but the most influential figure in Syracuse. Callihroe is compared to Aphrodite because her beauty has a way of captivating people and almost spellbinding them.
Chaereas and Callihroe marry, much to the anger and chagrin of her many other suitors. Some take channel their disappointment into causing a rift in the marriage; they band together and convince Chaeras that Callihroe is being unfaithful to him. He is furious and becomes physically abusive, kicking Callihroe so hard that she collapses. She is assumed dead and there is even a funeral service for her. The tomb is about to be sealed when it is discovered that she is not dead, but in a coma. She wakes up just as pirates are removing the lid of the tomb intent upon robbing it. She scares them (understandably) but they recover their composure quickly enough to see an opportunity in the situation, and they both rob the tomb and take Callihroe with them. They sell her as a slave in Miletus. Like every other man who has ever been in her presence, her new master, Dionysius, falls madly in love with her. He marries her, and she does not mention that she iis married already. She is also pregnant by her husband, another small detail that she omits. Because of this Dionysius assumes that the son she gives birth to is his own.
Chaeras, meanwhile, has heard that she is alive, and goes immediately in search of her. His search is curtailed when he is captured and enslaved. Both Chaeras and Callihroe somehow come to the attention of the King of Persia himself, Artaxerxes. It is he who will decide which man is her rightful and lawful husband, but he also considers casting out both of the men and taking Callihroe for himself.
War breaks out. Chaeras, who is fighting on the side of the Egyptian rebels, successfully storms Tyre, a Persian stronghold. He follows up this success with a naval victory. He is then reunited with Callihroe who writes a letter to Dionysius telling him that he should raise her son and send him to Syracuse when he reaches adulthood. Chaeras and Callihroe also return to Syracuse, to a hero's welcome. Callihroe offers thanks and prayers to Aphrodite, feeling that events have been guided by her all along.
