Nikolas, the Achaean-born favourite of Ramesses The Great and a forensic pharmacologist, is pressed into service to treat a strange illness afflicting a Babylonian scholar studying at the Temple of Life scriptorium in Memphis. He diagnoses poison, and reviews the recent deaths of other members of the Babylonian scholastic team. The scholars are revealed as thieves of the greatest of secrets - how the pyramids are used to commune with the gods and empower the land of Egypt. A series of further suspicious deaths reveal that a play for political power is underway and Nikolas and his team try to put together a puzzle comprised of many confusing pieces. The investigation ranges as far as Nineveh in Assyria, while murders continue to accumulate in Memphis. Which members of the royal family are responsible, and why?