Unlike most teenaged boys, Teppic isn't chasing girls and working at the mall. Instead he's just inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi-a job that's come a bit earlier than he expected (a turn of fate his recently departed father wasn't too happy about either). It's bad enough being new on the job, but Teppic hasn't a clue as to what a pharaoh is supposed to do. After all, he's been trained at Ankh-Morpork's famed assassins' school,...

An alien pyramid has appeared on Earth, squatting in the middle of Chicago. It is growing, destroying the city as it does and nothing seems able to stop it, not even the might of the US military. Somehow, the alien device is snatching people and for unknown reasons transporting them into worlds of mythology. Dr. Lukacs is one of the victims. Granted, he's an expert on mythology. But myths are not something he'd thought to encounter personally. Or...