Simonides bribes a Roman official so that Gratus is replaced by Pontius Pilate. Pilate orders an inspection of all prisons in Judea and an accounting of their prisoners. The jailkeeper of the Tower of Antonia in Jerusalem comes to Pilate and tells him that, eight years earlier, Gratus had ordered him to put food and drink for three through a hole in a sealed cell with orders to never open it. In following Pilate’s orders, the jailkeeper has discovered that the cell contains only one person and that two women are trapped in another secret cell behind it. Pilate goes to oversee the rescue of the two women.

The two women in the secret cell are Tirzah and her mother; they pray for rescue. Tirzah moans with hunger, and her mother tells her that they have been pious and will soon be saved. A voice calls to them to ask who they are. The voice promises to return with help. A party of men soon returns and knocks down the wall of the cell. Pilate is about to enter the cell when the women shout to warn him that they have leprosy.