The old woman's gift-a small bronze figurine of the ancient Egyptian cat-goddess Bastet-is fine, but why does it grow hot in Maggie's hand?

And why, everywhere she goes in Cairo with her artist father and diplomat mother, does Maggie see cats? Do they have some connection to Bastet, goddess of balance and abundance? Now a factory is about to be built on the site of the goddess's temple. These plans would destroy the tombs of the ancient sacred cats, mummified thousands of years ago. Needing help to restore good to Egypt in the modern world, the goddess has awakened angry from her millennia-long sleep.

Is Bastet mysteriously speaking to Maggie through her disciples, the myriad of cats wandering freely through the streets, cemeteries, markets and mosques of modern Cairo? If so, Maggie must take action to protect the tombs.

But what can Maggie do? She doesn't speak much Arabic, and she doesn't know her way around Cairo. With determination and the aid of an Egyptian boy she has befriended, Maggie must battle powerful enemies--some strange, some all-too-familiar--that are set upon destroying the very life force of Egypt and her children.