Spending a year abroad in Paris, Ellie sets about trying to track down any other scrolls of King Numa that may have survived with the help of new friend Persi.

Meanwhile, back in St Andrews, Carla's new English tutor is getting too friendly for comfort, and tensions start to rise between Ellie and Tantallon over the direction of her studies.

But when her treasure hunt turns deadly, Ellie realises that academic disputes are the least of her worries. For she is not the only one interested in the Sarcophagus Scrolls, and she has become tangled in a millennia-old game of cat and mouse.