Hercule Poirot is summoned to solve a case involving the murder of a seductive woman accompanying a scientific party investigating the secrets of ancient Babylon.

In this thriller set in the Middle East of 1914, Somerville, a British archaeologist, and his team are excavating a long-buried Assyrian palace when an American geologist from an oil company posing as an archaeologist arrives one day and insinuates himself into Somerville's group. But he's not the only one working undercover to stake a claim on Iraq's rich oil fields.