Eleven-year-old Lydia Hartley has always dreamed of following in the footsteps of her archaeologist father. When he is called to Egypt to help track down the culprits responsible for the so-called "scarab scam," an operation dealing in forged antiquities, Lydia gets the chance of a lifetime to travel along with him. However, once she's in Egypt, Lydia learns there is much more at stake for both her father and her Egyptian hosts than mere scarabs, especially for twelve-year-old Sima Malik--and only Lydia knows what to do.