Nefertari arrived in Thebes as a twelve-year-old orphan following the mysterious murder of her Hittite parents, raised within the golden palace under the stern guardianship of Pharaoh Amenhotep. Over six years of royal tutelage, her awe blossomed into unspoken devotion toward the sovereign. But when she confesses her feelings upon coming of age, Amenhotep cruelly spurns her, publicly proclaiming his engagement to high priestess Meritt while burying secret guilt that the former dynasty ordered her family's massacre.
Following an intoxicated nocturnal tryst that the ruler dismisses as a feverish illusion, palace intrigue turns lethal. Meritt weaponizes Amenhotep's calculated distance to sabotage Nefertari, staging assassinations and plagiarizing the girl's sacred poetry to solidify her own coronation. Stripped of imperial protection and abandoned amid collapsing temple colonnades, Nefertari realizes her childhood sanctuary is a cage of state lies, setting out to uncover the truth of her bloodline before the court silences her.
