On the trail of a Dead Sea Scroll, maverick Egyptologist Daniel Knox stumbles across an ancient temple being surreptitiously excavated by evangelical Christians outside Alexandria. A chase ends in tragedy with the death of Alexandria's senior archaeologist, and Knox the chief suspect.

Meanwhile, Knox's partner Gaille Bonnard is baby-sitting a television crew around the ancient city of Amarna, home of the multiple mysteries of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Kidnapped by rogue soldiers, her time fast running out, she sends Knox a message hidden in a hostage video, pleading with him to come to her rescue.

But Knox has problems of his own, under arrest on suspicion of murder, locked in a police cell half a country away. And the only way for him to find and save her is to crack one of the great unsolved mysteries of the ancient world.