The Sacred Cycle Plot Summary
Includes novel and all Select Edition extra stories
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Note: Page numbers below refer to the Select Edition paperback.
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Comprehensive list of plot developments from start to finish.
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The Sacred Cycle Info Links
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Entire book Plot
Begins on page 1
- A young woman revived 4,600 years after being poisoned and mummified in the Egypt of the Great Pyramid struggles to adapt to a new life in the chaos of modern-day London.
- As she catches up to the current moment in understanding modern society and the progress of civilization, she realizes she must obtain closure on her mistakes or remain forever chained to the past.
- A trip to Egypt allows her to make peace with her memories and finally live fully in the present with her new love.
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Part 1: Resurrection Plot
Begins on page ___
- After being poisoned and mumified by her despised ex-husband, Teppi awakens 4,600 years later in the basement of the British Museum in London on Christmas night—as Crindi begins drilling through her wrappings to collect samples.
- Crindi, who’s a PhD candidate from the United States, brings an emaciated and severely dehydrated Teppi to her cozy, one-room flat in a London suburb to protect her from becoming a specimen and secretly nurse her back to health.
- Teppi, too weak to walk and too depressed to try, sinks deeper and deeper into despair over the lost connection with her teenage daughter Shinōn. She resists Crindi’s efforts, ultimately driving her to exhaustion.
- We learn a lot about Teppi’s challenging past, the cruelty inherent in ancient Egyptian life, and her regrets over things left unsaid to her daughter. She vows Shinōn, lost eons in the past, will remain her personal burden to bear.
- Crindi’s backstory begins to fill in. It’s a tale of academia, loneliness, and unspoken heartbreaks.
- When Crindi collapses, Teppi rallies herself to save her flatmate and only friend.
- After both women are rescued by their neighbor, down-to-earth Ollie, a woman recently arrived in London from Yorkshire, Teppi must decide if anything in her new life is worth living for.
- We see a brief preview of Teppi and Crindi setting out together to conquer London.
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Part 2: Renewal Plot
Begins on page ___
- The women become a closely bonded pair as Teppi gets a crash course on existing in the modern world. She gets serious about learning English and uses her natural language skills to (mostly) understand the words, if not the nuances of polite conversation.
- Crindi strives to socialize Teppi through constant nudges and frequent family meetings on topics as diverse as toothbrushes, chocolate, and personal hygiene.
- Ancient Egyptian beetle-headed god Khepri’s role in Teppi’s life is explained. Mr. K, the pet beetle and "low-res incarnation of Khepri," takes up residence in the flat.
- We meet the other graduate students:
- Angela, a linguist with an extremely prickly personality and razor-sharp tongue.
- Ravi, a talented historian who's flagging motivation is eroding his chance to remain in the PhD program.
- The Professor, the ninety-one-year-old graduate student advisor at the museum with encyclopedic knowledge of history, quickly surmises Teppi's origin. He remains mum on the topic as he appoints himself her personal guide and mentor for her study of the progress of human civilization via the displays of the largest museum collection in the world.
- After meeting Angela and Ravi, Teppi determines that she will force the students to become friends with Crindi to solve her loneliness, no matter what it takes.
- Teppi fearlessly integrates into the student group at the British Museum, with several missteps as she does her best to apply her ancient knowledge to modern issues and interpersonal relationships. Crindi vows to stand by her new best friend’s side, unflinching, as she inwardly dies from embarassment.
- Teppi struggles to keep her thoughts of Shinōn a secret. She tries to avoid thinking about the heart scarab she never passed on and all the times she never said
- We learn more of Crindi’s past struggles and heartbreaks and get a hint that she is falling for Teppi, who is increasingly affected by the presence and attention of her “very best friend.”
- The brutal conditions of slavery are revealed in Teppi’s scars.
- Teppi’s disclosure of her trauma leads to a slight thawing of Angela’s frosty attitude, who makes an effort to mend fences with Crindi by inviting her for dinner at her mother's home.
- Floris, Angela's devoted mum who shares any thought that crosses her mind with no filter, takes in instant liking to Teppi and Crindi. She forces a sleepover, where Crindi and Angela discover their old bond from their days chatting in an ancient Egypt forum.
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Part 3: Remembrance Plot
Begins on page ___
- It’s a summer of adventures and road trips as Teppi, Crindi, Angela, and Ollie become a close friend group, with Ravi grudgingly tagging along to Westminster Abbey and Stonehenge.
- Teppi’s understanding of the world catches up to modern times as she continues studying in the museum galleries and the Reading Room under the guidance of the Professor.
- Teppi learns that history is complicated. She’s distraught at the cruelty interwoven throughout the march of civilization and considers what role her own ancient culture played in it.
- The Professor shares his past mistakes and his efforts to atone for both neglect of his family and his role in removing artifacts from Egypt—including Teppi herself.
- Teppi’s proud of her past profession of master beer brewer, but that doesn’t stop former-nurse Crindi’s health regimen from slowly cutting her alcohol consumption to almost nothing.
- The full significance of heart scarabs, amulets in the shape of the sacred dung beetle often interred with the dead, becomes clear. Teppi becomes increasingly distraught that she never gave Shinōn hers, which she fears doomed her daughter to an eternity locked out of paradise.
- Floris dotes on Crindi and Teppi, tests the patience of Angela, and has a hard time seeing Ravi as anything but a muppet.
- Teppi, Crindi, Ollie, and Angela go shopping in the West End courtesy of Floris’s credit card. Teppi finds her “look” with a black leather jacket and combat boots. This gives her a dose of courage to hang out with the blokes at a pub.
- A trip to the aquarium finally splits Teppi’s heart open, and she shares her full past and her remorse over the fate of Shinōn with her friends.
- Angela reveals the harsh fact of Crindi’s student visa running out and having to leave the UK, which will break her promise to always be there for Teppi.
- Feeling abandoned, Teppi listens to Ravi explain his new focus on children’s heart scarabs. She discovers that her misplaced gift to Shinōn is not even in Egypt. It’s there in the British Museum, collected by the Professor—as was her mummy—from a black market antiquities dealers in Cairo.
- The Professor rallies a despondant Teppi to pursue her destiny—the reason her god kept her alive. She repairs her rift with Crindi and the two make an offering of chocolate to ask Khepri to point the way forward.
- The students discover that a secret chamber in Teppi’s old brewery is likley still intact—and possibly filled with the valuable goods Teppi and Shinon hid to fund their future. Teppi feels compelled to place Shinon’s heart scarab in the one remaining, identifiable place they both stood together deep in the Egyptian desert.
- The Professor implements a scheme using old underworld connections to allow Teppi to travel. In the process, he shares his last name with a newly (if illegally) minted British citizen.
- The flatmates say goodbye to their friends and their time in London and fly to Teppi’s homeland in Egypt with two suitcases of museum artifacts—the Professor’s attempt to atone for his years of acquiring ancient treasures for the British Museum using shady backchannels.
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Part 4: Reckoning Plot
Begins on page ___
- After a brief glimpse at the Great Pyramid, Teppi and Crindi are kidnapped less than twelve hours after arriving in Egypt by artifact thieves who had twisted the Professor’s best intentions to their own advantage.
- Teppi is shot twice defending Crindi. When she awakens, she learns of the Professor’s death from old age and exhaustion stemming from enacting his scheme.
- Crindi hears the kidnapper’s plans to force them to reveal artifacts, and Teppi must admit she lied about the contents of the secret chamber when she told Ravi it contained gold and silver.
- Teppi’s selfish concern that Crindi wouldn’t help her return to Egypt without the motivation of (nonexistent) treasure turns out to be completely irrelevant when Crindi confesses her love for her flatmate.
- Teppi sinks to her lowest level of despair as she blames herself for endangering Crindi and hastening the Professor’s death. Teppi is uncertain about her own feelings for Crindi, but pushes aside those thoughts since their death appears imminent.
- A beetle-inspired plan results in Teppi inducing vomiting via rat poison, which creates an opening for the women to subdue their kidnappers and continue their mission to find the secret chamber.
- After collapsing in the desert heat, a hallucination of Mr. K in the form of a large, posh beetle pushes Teppi to deeply consider her relationship with Crindi.
- Rescued from the desert by a pipeline-maintenance worker, the pair set out on foot after the sun sets, armed with a shovel and a sledgehammer, to unearth the secret chamber so Teppi can place Shinōn’s heart
- Finally alone inside the small secret chamber, Teppi tells Crindi she loves her. Then she collapses the ruin, imagining she’s sending herself to the past as she tumbles into darkness to cut her friend free from her damaging influence.
- As Teppi drifts away, desperately missing her flatmate and lover, Crindi returns with help to dig her out.
- The two hold a final family meeting where Crindi empathizes with Teppi’s anguish over losing her daughter, but is adamant they can love each other in the present and start a new life filled with meaning together.
- A beetle leads them to open a hidden stone box and they find the heart scarab given to Teppi by her mother and a message from Shinōn written on ostraca, a flake of limestone.
- Teppi learns of her daughter’s courage in bringing Teppi’s ex-husband to justice, as well as her ultimately happy outcome. She is finally able to give Shinōn her heart scarab. Teppi leaves her own heart scarab for the Professor, asking Shinōn to keep him company in the afterlife.
- Teppi’s ancient Sacred Cycle is now complete and the couple prepares to go home.
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Part 5: Renaissance Plot
Begins on page ___
- Snapshots from a couple years later reveal that Teppi and Crindi live together in London and still see their close friends.
- Teppi and Crindi are flatmates, have another Mr. K and a cat named after the Professor, and still get takeaway with Ollie.
- Angela is a professor at Oxford who co-authored a book about ancient hidden messages with Teppi.
- Crindi is a professor at University College of London.
- Ravi has taken over the Professor’s position as graduate student advisor at the British Museum.
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Select Edition extra stories
Begins on page ___
The following stories are found only in the Select Edition of the book.
Message in a Bottle Plot
Short story plot
- A prequel that occurs a few months before Teppi awakens.
- Ollie, a recently arrived woman from Yorkshire, meets Crindi the first day the American arrives in London.
- Ollie is lonely and missing her hometown, but decides to delay quitting her security job to help Crindi set up house.
- Crindi’s upbeat chatter reminds Ollie of her failure to adapt to life in the city.
- A mistake at her job reinforces Ollie’s decision to quit…
- … but she finds a thank you note from Crindi and realizes that her new friend could be the start of a happier life in her adopted city.
Broken Chords Plot
Short story plot
- A prequel that occurs fourteen years before the events of The Sacred Cycle.
- Middle-school Angela struggles with her father’s infidelity and divorce from Floris, testing her relationship with her mother and her devotion to piano.
- Through playing the concertos of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and supported by the virtual friendship she finds in an ancient Egypt forum, Angela works through the grief of losing the family she’d grown up in.
- Without knowing her anonymous forum friend is Crindi, Angela finds the strength to begin her life anew and fully accept the love of her devoted mum.
Storybook Heart Plot
Novella plot
- In a story that parallels the events of The Sacred Cycle, Ravi rekindles his passion for Egyptology as he reconnects with his older sister Priya.
- Encouraged by her enthusiasm and gentle nudges, he slowly alters his approach to life, scholarship, and friendships.
- His renewed seriousness and inspiration from Teppi’s life story saves his faltering doctoral thesis.
- His decision to create a going-away book for Teppi and Crindi brings him back in touch with his mother and father and the family life he didn’t realize he was missing.