Young Huy is sent away from his farming family to attend a prestigious school for a chance at a better life as a scribe, but a sudden accident renders him unconscious and, to all appearances, dead. When his return to life makes him a pariah, ostracized by his visions of the deaths of those around him, Huy is soon apprenticed to a priest who believes Huy's power will enable him to interpret the Book of Thoth, and fame attracts the attention of the Pharaoh Amunhotep. Huy begins to realize that his power is not granted to him, but owns him, for he is no longer his own master. He is the King's Man.