Parrish is a burnt-out U.S. diplomat; his future buried in a performance evaluation somewhere. But when rumors of his mysterious powers spread, a grassroots Muslim following suddenly starts calling him "The Expected One"-the last thing America needed in Egypt. It didn't help he had resurrected the leader's daughter from near death and was on the run with her. If he hadn't replaced that other man, his life wouldn't have changed. Parrish fumed as he plunged into the vortex that desert night by the bus with the blown out tires cradling a dying girl in his arms. When everyone looked expectantly, he pleaded with them..."I'm not the one!"...but as if by magic healed her anyway. How was he to know where that small act would lead? All he wanted was to keep under the radar at the embassy and hunt for antiquities. It was Egypt after all, the peaceful Cairo he loved. Who knew the General would grab power overnight, a man as famous for his gourmet cooking as he was for his fundamentalism--though soon his feminist daughter, Azhara, would test that faith. When philandering oil minister al' Rashid hires a detective to investigate Azhara before proposing marriage and finds Parrish on the lamb with her, he sets all his powers after them too. Then, when a young Russian journalist, "The Travel Girl," latches onto the story, she instantly knows it's her ticket to fame and riches and a worldwide exclusive--then they couldn't hide. All of a sudden, everybody wants Parrish. The junta for murder; Islamists for blasphemy; The State Department just wants him gone...but common Egyptian people desperately want to believe--and that's the problem. Unexpectedly something bigger is happening, something profound. Parrish is evolving into an enigmatic new person and it sweeps him into events he never before could have imagined.