Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.

Sixteen-year-old Bernardo, who is eight feet tall and suffers from a condition called Gigantism, leaves the Philipines to live with his mother's family in London, much to the delight of his thirteen-year-old half sister Andi, a passionate basketball player.

Fourteen-year-old Graham Sinclair, born with mysterious hands and a strange secret, finds his life further complicated when he saves a baby after a plane crash and meets a beautiful girl. Graham finds his life suddenly, thrillingly complicated--and his secret harder and harder to conceal.