Two storylines run in parallel. In one, the former National MP for Hawkes Bay has problems—he’s being prosecuted for making a knowingly false statutory declaration and his wife is having an affair with his station manager. At the same time he is selling off some Egyptian antiquities left to him by his Great Aunt Hillary. In the other, Dorothy Glendinning and her young travelling companion Hillary become involved in the Howard Carter expedition of 1922 to find the tomb of Tutankahmun.
Each story has six characters played by the same cast.