Berenice, a princess from Cyrene in Libya, became queen of Egypt and dedicated her famous hair in thanksgiving for her husband's return from a war. It vanished, and became the constellation Coma Berenices, which we can see any night in summer. That's the classical story! What really happened to her hair? This novel exploits the grittier facts known about the historical Berenice (for instance, she killed the first man sent to marry her, Demetrius "the Fair", because her mother seduced him). And it derives plot suggestions from the author's experiences in modern Libya and Egypt, such as swimming over a drowned city. Berenice was left to manage a huge intricate nation with its scheming politicians. The story takes her past three of the seven Wonders of the World - the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Pyramids - but taller than them all is the natural phenomenon that saves her.