Content Warning: Both the source material and this guide contain descriptions of violence, including the beating of enslaved persons.

In ancient Egypt, during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, a Nile boat named Silver Beetle gets ready to leave the city of Menfe (Memphis). Nekonkh, the middle-aged captain, scans the bustling wharf for the mysterious passenger he has brought down from Thebes, Egypt’s capital. The passenger, a tall young man named Sheftu, has aroused Nekonkh’s suspicions with his aristocratic bearing, which casts doubt on his claim to be a mere apprentice scribe. Nor does he talk like a lowly scribe, for he responded to Nekonkh’s offhand criticisms of the queen—i.e., that she has been bankrupting Egypt with lavish building projects while denying her brother Thutmose his rightful throne—with a gentle reminder that such opinions are treasonous and that the queen’s spies are “everywhere.” Further confusing the captain, Sheftu has told him of a “reckless” conspiracy in Thebes to overthrow the queen, claiming that the conspirators believe Hatshepsut to be guilty of starving the people of Egypt with taxes while vastly swelling the personal wealth of Count Senmut, her chief architect.