Caitlynn Fox Quinn is a woman of many accomplishments- quite unusual for a young lady in 1930s London. Between her journalism career at the Evening News, her new pilots license, and practicing martial arts with the daughter of the Chinese ambassador, she doesn't have much time to spare. But when she returns one evening to her apartment to find that an Egyptian neighbor and friend of hers has been brutally murdered, she realizes that she must prioritize finding the killer, and the reason behind Civenne's death.

A letter from the murdered Civenne's brother and an insignia pin left behind in her apartment lead Caitlynn's investigation down a trail lined with crooked antiquities dealers, Egyptian mummy's curses, British Museum archeologists, and Nazis. Can she trust the American attache who always seems to be in the right place at the right time? Not to mention the Scotland Yard Inspector who has made it his personal mission to keep her away from the case?

With the help of her equally clever friend friend Merlyn Zhou, the Chinese ambassador's daughter, Caitlynn begins to untangle the threads. They soon realize that the only way to get to the bottom of Civenne Hassan's murder is to locate her missing brother. And the only way to do that is to make the six-and-a-half-day long trip to Cairo.