Three years on from the events in The Golem's Eye, the magicians' rule inLondon is teetering on a knife-edge, with strikes, riots and generalunrest. The Prime Minister is largely controlled by two advisors, one ofwhom is 17-year-old Nathaniel. Meanwhile, living under a false identity,Kitty has been researching djinn; she has come to believe that the onlyway to destroy the magicians is for an alliance of some kind between djinnand ordinary people. Kitty seeks out Bartimaeus and embarks on a terrifyingjourney into the djinn's chaotic domain - The Other Place - which no humanbeing has ever survived. But even as she does so, Makepeace engineers adramatic coup d'etat. The outcome is a shattering of the magicians'controland all magical laws are turned upside down. Can Bartimaeus, Nathaniel andKitty settle old scores if they are to survive and prevent the earth'sdestruction?