Leda Hubbard, a forensic pathologist, gets the job of her dreams when an old school friend hires her to collect and authenticate the DNA of the famous Cleopatra. It s all great fun for Leda until, during a massive disaster, her colorful dad, the dig s security specialist, is killed by a group trying to hijack the precious material for a blend, a process in which the queen s DNA is used to import her memories, personality, and character traits to a new host. They screw up, however, and get Leda s dad s DNA instead. To keep the queen from going to the murderers, Leda blends with Cleopatra herself, learning a lot more about Egypt than she ever wanted to know.