The Hermetic Brotherhood of Al-Jahiz, mainly composed of Englishmen who admire Al-Jahiz—a Sudanese mystic who reintroduced magic to the world around forty years ago—suffers a brutal attack when a man donning a golden mask murders its members during a meeting.

With assistance from her new Ministry partner, Hadia Abdel Hafez, and her lover, Siti—a Sekhmet devotee and informant linked to the clandestine followers of the Egyptian pantheon—Fatma follows a trail of clues and leads throughout Cairo and its environs pursuing the gold-masked assailant who proclaims to be Al-Jahiz himself supposedly returned to the world.

Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, calling it "stunning" and a "fantastic feat of postcolonial imagination", lauding Clark's "colorful prose," "thorough worldbuilding," and "keen, critical eye toward gender, class, and imperialism.

"[12] Kristi Chadwick at Library Journal gave the novel a starred review, calling it "a richly detailed, action-packed novel" and praising Clark's "fantastical worldbuilding [that] highlights thematic issues of colonialism, spirituality, and race relations" as well as "issues of gender and class".

"[14] Marisa Mercurio of Strange Horizons called the novel "smart", "enormously fun", "an adventure that grapples with a history of imperialism", and praised Clark's rendering of a diverse cast of women from a variety of backgrounds.