The 1895-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Amelia Peabody, her dashing Egyptologist husband, Emerson, and their wild and precocious eight-year-old son, Ramses. The much-coveted burial chamber of the Black Pyramid in Dahshoor is theirs for the digging. But there is a great evil in the wind that roils the hot sands sweeping through the bustling streets and marketplaces of Cairo. The brazen moonlight abduction of Ramses?́?and an expedition...

On the death of her father, 32-year old Victorian heiress Amelia Peabody travels Egypt to indulge her interest in Egyptology. She travels with Evelyn Barton-Forbes and her trusty parasol which comes in handy on more than one occasion. In Cairo the pair meet archaeologists Radcliffe and Walter Emerson and sparks fly between Radcliffe and Amelia. The groups meet again at Emerson's excavation where Amelia saves Radcliffe's life and takes charge of his...