Every decision has consequences, and logic gets you every time.

France Leighton is studying Egyptology at Miskatonic University in Arkham, where a lonely ghost haunts the university library, and strangeness is normal. France's hopes for a return to Egypt are complicated by her talent for rash decisions and the arrival of her twin half-brothers from England. Edward and Peter are contrasts. One is a rational scientist, the other a dabbler in the occult, but they are equally capable of persuading France to help them with dubious schemes.

France does return to Egypt, if not quite the way she intended. She meets old friends, former colleagues, and challenges rooted in her family's complicated history. Accusations of antiquities theft drive France and her companions into hiding in the Theban Hills west of Luxor, where an attack by an old enemy in a new form turns an adventure into a desperate predicament. On the brink of another failure, France must make hard choices that may demand the ultimate sacrifice.