The Great War has ended at last. No longer must archaeologist Amelia Peabody and her husband, Emerson, the distinguished Egyptologist, fear for the life of their daring son, Ramses, now free from his dangerous wartime obligations to British Intelligence. The advent of a season of joy and peace marks a time of new beginnings in Luxor, with delightful additions to the growing Emerson family and fascinating wonders waiting to be discovered beneath the shifting Egyptian sands.

But in the aftermath of conflict, evil still casts a cold shadow over this violence-scarred land. The theft of valuable antiquities from the home of a friend causes great concern in the Emerson household. Ramses's strange encounter with a woman costumed in the veil and gold crown of a goddess only deepens the mystery. And the brutal death of the suspected thief washes the unsettling affair in blood.

Amelia's investigation sets her on a terrifying collision course with an adversary more fiendish and formidable than any she has ever encountered. And in her zeal to make things right, the indomitable Amelia may be feeding the flames of a devastating firestorm that threatens the fragile lives of the tender and the innocent.