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...

It's 1922, and The Great War is over. With the world at peace, Amelia and her family return to the Valley of the Kings to explore its storied sands. But they are quickly troubled by treacherous secrets and murder. A woman presents them with a priceless but dangerous artifact--a golden king said to bring death to all who possess it. The woman's husband has already fallen, and now she needs help to return the relics to its tomb.

At last the Great War is over. Amelia, her distinguished Egyptologist husband Emerson and their extended family are preparing for another season of excavation in Egypt. To everyone's great joy their son Ramses and his wife Nefret have become parents. Amelia, enjoying her role of fond (yet firm) grandmother, hopes that for once, this will be a quiet year with Ramses no longer undertaking perilous missions for British intelligence and no old enemies...

Revisiting Egypt in 1917 with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law, Egyptologist Amelia Peabody stumbles across a murdered body, a situation that is complicated by an assignment from British intelligence and her daughter-in-law's troubling secret.