After Roman architect Lucius faces criticism for his “outdated” thermae designs, he withdraws to the local bath to gather his thoughts. Lucius simply wishes to recapture the Rome of earlier times, when one could enjoy a relaxing bath free from the pressure of merchants and roughhousing patrons. As he slips deeper into the warm water, Lucius is suddenly caught in the suction and dragged through the drainage at the bottom of the bath! He emerges coughing and sputtering among a group of strange-looking foreigners with the most peculiar bathhouse customs... over 1,500 years in the future in modern-day Japan! Since his contemporaries wanted him to modernize, Lucius borrows the customs of these mysterious bath-loving people and opens what quickly becomes the most popular new bathhouse in Rome—Thermae Romae!