In 1927, Julie Berkley, the daughter of a Virginia Senator, goes to Egypt with her father to deliver a message to the Egyptian government, and to visit with her aunt and uncle teaching at the Cairo University there. While on a horseback trip with her aunt to the Birket Garun Oasis, Julie encounters three strange Arabs while cooling off in the oasis. After being saved from an alligator by one of the riders, a handsome, blue-eyed Bedouin in a flowing white robe, Julie rushes back to her friends. Hamid, their guide, becomes quite emotional about Julie’s sighting of the rarely seen Arab, and tells them a long story about who this light-skinned sheik, Aezrakan, is and the story of his mysterious tribe and their secret castle located somewhere in the Libyan Desert.
The following morning Julia is kidnapped by these desert tribesmen and taken to their secret castle, El Mayya Ksar. Here begins the intriguing story about Julie and the sheik, Aezrakan, the El Mayya Ksar people, and her amazing escape, return, and extraordinary love story.