The secret Temple of the Magi is robbed by four thieves. Only one survives. On the last day of her holiday in Egypt, 15 year old Lucy Brennan witnesses a desperate chase across the roads of Luxor. A man is pursued by four Arabs in traditional dress. Dodging traffic and knocking over traders' stalls he dashes towards the Saxon II cruise ship anchored on the Nile. Spying Lucy and knowing his pursuers are close to catching him; the man throws her a battered old briefcase, and then disappears among the alleys and streets leading off the quay. Lucy opens the briefcase and discovers an ancient book. Feeling the fugitive has entrusted her with its safe keeping, taking a tremendous risk and keeping it secret from her parents, she smuggles it back to England. Intrigued by the book Lucy and her teenage friends attempt to decipher the hieroglyphics on the cover. Once the code has been cracked, the experiments begin. But the book had been stolen from the Magi and was meant for a ruthless Russian billionaire. He employs the world's greatest assassin, 14 year old Hakim to track down the book and dispose of everyone associated with it. Selim, a young Magi, has been tasked by his elders to find the book. He must reach it and return it to Egypt before the Russian can use its magic. Arriving in England and teeming up with Basmir (Bash), a student of a now renegade Magi both must risk death to locate the book. Various recipes from the book take the friends deep into the realms of the Occult with strange and unexpected results. The Russian has also employed two very weird creatures who use the names Mister Koff and Mister Finn. They are vampires and their mission is to trail Hakim and when the assassin has disposed of the others, they are to dispose of him. But the vampires and the assassin have a history of warfare that goes back centuries. The school-friends are way out of their depths and the magic is taking over their lives. They have created a strange flying creature and each magical recipe seems to have a basic flaw - or a price. Closing in on them, all desperate for the Alchemist's Cookbook, are the assassin, the vampires and, unknown to them their only hope of redemption, a young apprentice Magi called Selim.