This book is the seventh part of the Oriental Odyssey series. Kara ben Nemsi and Hajji Halef Omar face Turkish justice in Ostromja. After exposing the corrupt officials and the fake holy man known as the Mübarek, they leave town after being warned of an ambush plot by two brothers known as the Alajy. Kara ben Nemsi disguises himself as a Sherif and foils their plan but is later trapped with his companions in the bandits’ stronghold. During their subsequent escape the old Mübarek is wounded and one of the robbers is killed. But Kara ben Nemsi is far from safe, he falls prey to the law of blood vengeance. Now guided by one of the Schut’s men, the little troop is lured into another trap. Their lucky encounter with Anka, a servant girl, forewarns them of a plot against all their lives. Later, whilst crossing a storm swollen river, Kara ben Nemsi rescues a woman and learns more about the Schut’s stronghold.

A Turkish trader befriends the narrator and invites him into his Cairo home where he uncovers a fake ghost, who turns out to be the leader of a powerful Muslim organization. The Turk then induces his guest to accompany him to the Sudan. Circumstances however force the narrator to travel ahead alone up the Nile River on a sailing ship. The ship’s crew turns out to be accomplices of a Muslim leader, who are slave traders. An Egyptian naval officer arrests the ship’s crew and invites the narrator to continue his travel upriver with him. Arriving in Asyut he is hosted at a Pasha’s residence, tames an Arab stallion, and visits a mummy cave. A Fakir lures him into a well from where he extricates himself. Joined by the Turk, the two continue to travel up the Nile. In the Sudan, the narrator discovers that his Turkish “friend” is actually allied with the slavers. The Egyptian naval officer asks for the narrator’s help and he intercepts a caravan of enslaved Bedouin women, returning them to their home and their tribe, the Bani Fassara.