First published in 1953, Mara, Daughter of the Nile is a work of historical fiction by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. An American author of children’s literature and young adult novels, McGraw won the Newbery Honor three times during her long and prolific career, which included contributing to L. Frank Baum’s Oz series. Mara, Daughter of the Nile is a young adult novel that combines romance and political intrigue with historical fact as it portrays ancient Egypt during the rule of Queen Hatshepsut, one of the world’s first female monarchs. Equal parts political thriller and historical romance, McGraw’s story explores themes of culture clash, espionage, altruism, self-determination, political consciousness, and social justice.

This guide refers to the 1985 Puffin Books edition.

Content Warning: Both the source material and this guide contain descriptions of violence, including the beating of enslaved persons.

Plot Summary

In the ancient Egyptian city of Menfe during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, an enslaved young woman named Mara dreams of a life of freedom and wealth. Beautiful, resourceful, and bilingual (speaking both Babylonian and Egyptian), she attracts the eye of a mysterious cloaked man while stealing pastries in the marketplace. This stranger buys her from her cruel master and orders her to pose as a freedwoman so that she may serve as an interpreter for a Canaanite princess who has been brought to Egypt to marry Queen Hatshepsut’s brother and powerless co-regent, Thutmose III. However, Mara’s true purpose will be to spy on Thutmose. If Mara is discovered, she will be killed instantly.

On a long boat trip to Abydos to meet the Canaanite princess, Mara eavesdrops on a private conversation between the boat’s captain, Nekonkh, and a young “scribe” named Sheftu, who she learns is actually a nobleman and a friend of Thutmose. Sheftu and Nekonkh are plotting a coup against the queen. Sheftu catches Mara eavesdropping and decides to recruit her as a secret agent instead of killing her. Believing that she is running from her enslaver, he blackmails her into infiltrating the royal court to serve as Thutmose’s secret messenger. To mitigate her situation, Mara volunteers to fulfill this task by posing as the Canaanite princess’s interpreter. Thus, she will be playing the same undercover role for two opposing sides (the queen and Thutmose), either of which will kill her if they discover her duplicity. Having no personal stake in court politics, Mara plans to reveal Sheftu’s plot to her new and as-yet-unnamed master at the soonest opportunity, in exchange for freedom and riches. However, her growing attraction to the charming Sheftu weakens her resolve, and she feels guilty at the idea of turning him in, so she decides to wait and see which faction will prove the most beneficial to her.

Upon arriving in Abydos and meeting Inanni, the Canaanite princess, Mara finds her to be hopelessly out of step with Egyptian fashion, but Inanni is also kind, sensitive, and desperately homesick. At the royal court in Thebes, Queen Hatshepsut openly mocks the “vulgar” foreign princess, whom she has betrothed to her brother only as an insulting reminder of her power over him. Next, Mara and Inanni meet Thutmose, whose hostile remarks Mara mistranslates in order to spare the princess’s feelings. Over the next few days, Mara acts as a go-between for Thutmose and Sheftu, facilitating their broad insurgency against the queen, who has been bankrupting the country with her extravagant building projects while leaving Egypt’s provinces largely undefended. Increasingly drawn to Sheftu’s cause, Mara gives no useful information to her master, whom she learns is Nahereh. He is the brother of Count Senmut, the queen’s right-hand man. However, Mara is appalled when Thutmose orders Sheftu to rob a royal tomb to gain funds for the revolution. Tearfully, she urges Sheftu, whom she has come to love, not to do this because she believes that the act of desecration would put his soul and life at risk. Because Sheftu cares only for the future of Egypt, he pillages the tomb, which holds the body of King Thutmose I, the father of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III.

Afterward, haunted by the terrifying ordeal, Sheftu kisses Mara for the first time and declares his love for her. However, as they embrace, he notices that she is still wearing a valuable ring that he gave her weeks before so that she could bribe her way into the princess’s service. Since Nahereh had already arranged for this placement to occur, Mara kept the ring for herself, and it is now evidence of her duplicity. Convinced that she may be a double agent for the queen, Sheftu sets a “trap” of misinformation for her, involving a boat that is supposedly loaded with the rebels’ cache of gold. When the queen’s soldiers raid the boat, Sheftu corners Mara and prepares to kill her for her “treachery.” However, in reality, Mara has made no report of the boat to Nahereh. Innocent, she protests that the real spy is a juggler named Sahure, a regular at the headquarters of Sheftu’s rebellion, whom Mara has recently learned is a spy for Nahereh. However, Sheftu does not believe her. Unable to bring himself to kill her, Sheftu orders Nekonkh to take her out of Egypt forever. Mara escapes from Nekonkh and runs to Nahereh’s house, where she learns that he has ordered a raid on the Inn of the Falcon, Sheftu’s rebel headquarters. Escaping from her guarded room with Inanni’s help, Mara reaches the inn just in time to raise the alarm.

However, Nahereh’s soldiers catch her, and she is brought before the queen, who orders her tortured for information about the rebels’ leader. Recalling Inanni’s belief that a nation’s future resides in what is good for its people, not its ruler, Mara refuses to tell the queen about Sheftu even when she is offered great wealth as a bribe. Meanwhile, Sheftu, learning of Mara’s heroism, enters the palace to save her, but he is recognized by the treacherous Sahure, who exposes him as the rebel leader. Sheftu, like Mara, refuses the queen’s bribes of riches and power and refuses to join her side. At the last minute, however, Mara and Sheftu’s lives are saved by the arrival of the rebel army, led by General Khofra, an old friend of Thutmose I. Finally gaining his rightful throne, Thutmose III gives his sister Hatshepsut a cup of poison to drink in order to spare her the indignity of being executed. He then showers Mara with honors as the savior of Egypt. When Sheftu asks her to marry him and become his baroness, Mara immediately requests that he buy and free Teta, who was enslaved with her in her old master’s household in Menfe. As news of Thutmose’s ascension spreads, the Nile Valley resounds with jubilation.