The unravelling of the conspiracy against the Prime Minister and the role he played in the rescue of the Amulet of Samarkand helped 14-years-old Nathaniel, a rising magician, gain the confidence of the great man himself, and he now finds himself a relatively important person in the government. Entrusted to deal with a Resistance movement that opposes the magicians' control of the British Empire, Nathaniel runs into dead ends. Convinced that Kitty Jones is behind the Resistance's thefts, destruction, and raids, Nathaniel is in a hurry to find her and exact his revenge for the humiliating way she dealt with him two years ago. Stopping the Resistance cannot happen soon enough, especially now that whole buildings are being destroyed by a strange force.
Kitty herself is involved with the Resistance, but the organization's goal remains murkey. What are they truly trying to accomplish with the stealing of magical items? How is that undermining their hold on power? When a powerful patron approaches the Resistance and provides the means for a break into the grave of Gladstone, a former and very powerful Prime Minister now deceased for over a hundred years, Kitty is apprehensive as to the cost. All the sponsor requires is Gladstone's old staff, the rest of the powerful magical items in there are for the Resistance to take.
When Nathaniel discovers that a Golem, an ancient magical artifact mastered by the Prague magicians centuries earlier, is in fact the cause of the destruction, quashing the Resistance becomes a question of life and death, especially his own. With events spiraling out of control, Nathaniel finds himself once again having to call upon the services of Bartimaeus, the very djinni that helped him fight Loveland and his co-conspirators two years earlier.
Bartimaeus is not pleased to find himself summoned again by this arrogant magician boy, but what can he do? The incantation force him to obey. Finding themselves in Prague, they encounter the Mercenary, this enigmatic figure who was central in the Amulet plot. Clearly there are darker forces at play, and Nathaniel, Bartimaeus and Kitty hurl towards a cataclysmic confrontation as they all seek to solve the mystery of the Golem.
The story concludes in Ptolemy's Gate.
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