[1] The historical novel presents a different view of events chronicled in the New Testament, specifically the ministry of Jesus Christ and his relationship to Mary Magdalene.

Longfellow said she based the book on her studies of translations of historic Jewish and Arabic texts, as well as on modern Biblical scholarship.

The story begins in the voice of the Jewess Mariamne as a child living a privileged life in her widowed father Josephus' home in Jerusalem.

Raised like sisters and indulged by a fond father with books and lessons usually only accorded boys, Mariamne and Salome possess a thirst for knowledge, both secular and magical, that is forbidden to females.

Through their devoted personal slave, they also learn worldly experience far beyond anything Josephus, a member of the elite Jewish Sanhedrin (court), would approve.

Within months Josephus, misunderstanding an exchange he sees between Salome and his guest, banishes both from his home and, hours later, Mariamne and her servant Tata.

With Seth, they travel to Alexandria, Egypt where Mariamne and Salome live in the Great Library, becoming learned in mathematics, philosophy, and poetry.

Deeply confused and disturbed by the violent actions of those around him, and their expectations of a "king", Yeshua retreats into the true wilderness of the Dead Sea region.

Mariamne had undergone her own experience of gnosis years earlier and no longer recounts it, but Yeshua is filled with a messianic fervor to share his sense that all are divine.

Longfellow said she based her choice of name for her lead character on the Nag Hammadi Papers, a collection of ancient Gnostic material found in 1945 in Egypt.

[4] Seekers of Mary Magdalene have commented on its reflection of the daily life of the times, as well as the known historical personages it depicts.

[5] According to Bookreporter, "this is an imaginative novel that undoubtedly will attract a lot of attention and foster discussion about one of the most controversial and fascinating women in early Church history.