The story is a first-person narrative of a young man pulled into an archaeologist's plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy.

Margaret reveals that her father had left a letter of strange instructions in the event of his incapacitation, stating that his body should not be removed from his room and must be watched at all times until he wakes up.

The next day, Malcolm and Margaret admire Trelawny's Egyptian treasures, noting in particular a large sarcophagus, a coffer covered with hieroglyphics, and an oddly well-preserved mummy hand with seven fingers.

The hieroglyphics on the wall led Corbeck and Trelawny to believe that the mummy was possessed with some sort of black magic and that Queen Tera had immense power over the Upper and Lower Worlds.

During their time in the tomb, they were put under some trance and recovered three days later to find that Trelawny's wife had died in childbirth, but Margaret survived.

Sixteen years passed before Trelawny contacted Corbeck, frantic because he believed that the lamps they saw in the tomb, when arranged in a specific pattern, would make the coffer open and would possibly be the key to Tera's resurrection.

He describes how powerful Queen Tera was and explains that her spirit has been residing in the mummy cat in Trelawny's room, waiting to be reunited with its human form.

Trelawny believes that the coffer, when opened by the proper formation of the lamps, will release some sort of magic that will revive the mummy and bring Tera's spirit to life.

Archaeological discoveries of ancient Egyptian tombs and monuments such as Cleopatra's Needle and the Rosetta Stone sparked the interest of European scholars and travelers.

Roger Luckhurst situates this within a cultural trend of what he calls Egyptian Gothic, "a set of beliefs or knowledges in a loosely occult framework" developed in response to British anxieties about the rule of Egypt.

However, because Egyptian kingship was intrinsically masculine, Hatshepsut publicly transformed her feminine self; all statues and "images of her after her coronation show her as a man—wide shoulders, trim hips, and no hint of breasts".

[14] A similar inscription was found on an obelisk at Hatshepsut's memorial: "Now my heart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say—those who shall see my monuments in years to come, and who shall speak of what I have done".

Brantlinger notes three key themes of Imperial Gothic: "individual regression or going native; an invasion of civilization by the forces of barbarism or demonism; and the diminution of opportunities for adventure and heroism in the modern world".

The Jewel of Seven Stars represents a specific fear, which Brantlinger labels the "invasion scare story": in a reversal of the "outward thrust of imperialist adventure", a foreign body gains power and threatens the existing structure of civilization.

[22] The confirmation of Tera's existence and her potential ability to return and invade Western civilization, shattering pre-existing beliefs about religion and science, reflects the anxieties brought on by the end of imperialism.

Though it increased in popularity in the nineteenth century, elements of Gothic horror have appeared in more contemporary works, influencing authors from Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King.

The genre is marked by supernatural occurrences, gloomy settings, violent emotions, terror, and threatening villains, all of which appear in The Jewel of Seven Stars.

Stoker's lengthy, eloquent descriptions possess a poetic quality, and Perry argues that his characters "[speak] with a sense of rhythm, parallelism, and balance that is characteristic of Whitman".

"[22] Malcolm realizes in this passage that the success of Tera's resurrection will shake the fundamental Christian belief of monotheism by proving that the religious principles of the Egyptians held merit and truth.

Especially given that The Jewel of Seven Stars was published right at the turn of the twentieth century, Stoker's implications of the power of the past call for a respect for "primitive" nineteenth-century discoveries.

Hebblethwaite articulately states: "As a new century began, and Victorian became Edwardian, [the novel] counsels its readers not to utterly reject the past as archaic and non-essential—there were things of value to be learned and remembered".

The fin de siècle was marked by the emergence of the "New Woman", middle-class feminists who espoused the domestic sphere and sought social and sexual freedom, challenging the gender roles that dominated British society.

Jusova explains that by "[contesting] and defamiliarizing the hegemonic Victorian definitions of gender and sexual identities, the New Woman further fueled the anxieties and fears that already circulated among the middle-class British population at the time".

[33] As the New Woman became more prevalent in society, however, Stoker continued to feature independent female characters in his works, balancing an exploration of the possibility of feminine power with a patriarchal discourse: "[Stoker’s heroines] frequently display both a degree of personal assertion and a sexual precocity which at first sight distances them from the patriarchal ideal of female passivity and subservience...even though by the end of each work the suggestion is implicitly made that biological difference, the destiny invested in gender, is the most powerful force of all".

Margaret begins as a timid, submissive daughter and non-threatening love interest, but she gradually takes on the qualities of Queen Tera, becoming strong and self-sufficient.

Malcolm is continually disturbed and "quite unmanned" by Margaret's empowerment and, as Hebblethwaite points out, "finds her newfound womanly emotionalism—'gloom and anxiety, hope, high spirits, deep depression, and apathetic aloofness'—not conducive to his own peace of mind".

[35] The more Margaret embraces her freedom, the more distant she is to Malcolm, even occasionally showing outright disdain; this exemplifies what males fear will happen if women gain autonomy.

As Deane argues, the wrapped and veiled Victorian mummy is extremely sexualized, "a woman...who, perfectly preserved in her youthful beauty, strongly attracts the libidinous attention of modern British men".

[9] In the final scene, the group of men publicly and voyeuristically unravel Tera's corpse, which, Hebblethwaite states, is a way to humiliate the female and revert her to submission.

[39] A London newspaper, The Saturday Review, was even less positive: "This book is not one to be read in a cemetery at midnight...but it does not quite thrill the reader as does the best work in this genre...It is due to Mr. Stoker to say that his wild romance is not ridiculous even if it fails to impress".