Two sisters serve as recluses in the temple of Serapis at Memphis, pouring libations for the dead, and the elder is noticed by the King — which is the worst thing that can happen to her. Ebers found the medical papyrus that bears his name and dug in Egypt for years; the Ptolemaic temple in this 1880 novel is reconstructed from papyri he had read himself, including the real petitions of real recluses.