Things are quiet in New York. Unusually quiet. Gabriel – the Ghost – knows that something's wrong. There's a heat wave building for a start, and it feels as if the pressure's getting unbearable. Something's going to give. When an expedition returns from Cairo to exhibit their finds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gabriel takes a keen interest. An old friend and lover – a girl called Ginny, who he hasn't seen for over a year – was part of the expedition. Something's not right with Ginny, however, and not just the fact she's still drinking…something happened to her in Cairo, out on the dig. Something that's related to a strange cult known as The Circle of Thoth, a baboon with a clockwork eye, dust devils on Fifth Avenue, robed assassins, sacrificial rites, a 'resurrection machine' and a ghostly figure clad in trailing bandages, seen floating over the rooftops of the city. Ancient forces are stirring, and the Ghost, Ginny and Gabriel's friend Donovan are caught right in the middle…