Cairo, 1936. Effie, a ten-year-old orphan from London, turns up in a packing case at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. All her life she has dreamed that her mother is an Egyptian princess, but she is faced with cruelty and crushing disappointment before she finds what she is looking for.
Beattie Trevethan is the daughter of the advisor to the Minister of the Interior and, along with her close friend and archaeologist Marcus Dunwoody, she takes Effie under her wing. Beattie is singled out by the 'Eye of Horus' gang, who are intent on driving the British out of Egypt by any means necessary.
The lives of Effie, Beattie and Marcus are changed forever in a country beset by civil unrest.