From the introduction:
Thousands of years ago, the high priest of the pharaoh Seti the First, Imhotep, murdered his lord after he entered an adulterous relationship with Seti’s concubine, Anck-Su-Namun. Imhotep’s lover committed suicide when their crime was discovered, but Imhotep would not let death be the end of their love. Using the Book of the Dead, Imhotep attempted to resurrect her. But he and his priests were discovered and stopped by the Medjai; the pharaoh’s bodyguards. Imhotep and his priests were mummified alive, and Imhotep himself was given the Hum-Dai; a curse so terrible that should its victim ever arise, they would bring with them the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Buried in his sarcophagus with flesh-eating scarabs that slowly devoured his flesh, Imhotep’s mummified body waited in his dark tomb in Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead...