[close] The sun rides high over the British Empire, and the light still sparkles brightly in Amelia Peabody's eye as she returns for her second adventure in archaeology and romantic mystery as recounted in her lively journal. Sir Henry is striving to ensure no tomb has been overlooked by the previous expedition. Scarcely have the men started working when their spades uncover a series of steps cut into the rock. Then Sir Henry is found stiff and stark in his bed -- on his high brow, inscribed in what appears to be dried blood, is a crudely drawn uraeus serpent, the symbol of the divine pharoah. Instead of digging up the treasures of a lost age, it appears that Amelia and her friend are excavating a deadly curse.