Hired by the Egyptology department of a Denver museum to create displays for an exhibit, medical illustrator Kate McKinnon encounters an intriguing enigma: the mummy of a young woman who lived thirty-three centuries ago, her ribs broken, one hand shattered, and a man's skull between her legs.

With the aid of radiologist Max Cavanaugh, employing the latest forensic and medical imaging techniques, Kate starts to unravel the millennia-old puzzle. And as the mummy's remarkable secrets come to light, a parallel story begins to unfold of a young girl born into a nest of vipers in an age when godlike pharaohs reigned in unimaginable splendor. Suddenly Kate finds herself on a twisting path leading her deeper into the shadows of anciet Kemet...and ever closer to the shocking revelations of a crime so staggering its horrific power remains undimished by the relentless passage of time.