Several years after their marriage, Amelia and Radcliffe Emerson are drawn back to Egypt when Lady Baskerville asks them to continue the Luxor excavation begun by her recently deceased husband. Sir Henry’s death, the disappearance of an archaeologist and a series of alarming incidents have encouraged rumours that the tomb is protected by an ancient curse.
Amelia treats the curse as a convenient disguise for human motives. While Emerson takes charge of the excavation, she questions the household and expedition members, follows the movement of antiquities and tests the stories surrounding Sir Henry’s final days, placing herself directly in the path of a murderer determined to keep the tomb’s secrets buried.