Dashing legionnaire Rick O'Connell and Beni, his weasel of a companion, stumble upon the hidden ruins of Hamunaptra while in the midst of a battle in 1923--3,000 years after Imhotep has suffered a fate worse than death--mummification, in which his body wil remain undead for all eternity as punishment for forbidden love. Some years later, as O'Connell languishes in prison awaiting an almost certain execution, he finds that his knowledge of the exact location of Hamunaptra becomes a bargaining tool to save his life. The legendary riches buried beneath the sands of Hamunaptra have become an obsession with both treasure-hunters and archeologists, and O'Connell finds himself in an unlikely alliance with the beautiful, but clumsy Egyptologist Evelyn and her ne'er-do-well brother, Jonathan. The trio leave Cairo for a journey which will take them down the Nile, across the treacherous expanse of the Sahara and to an encounter with a malevolent force with power beyond their imagination.