The story follows the characters Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton, sorcerer and detective, with his partner Stephanie Edgley who goes by the name Valkyrie Cain, and numerous magic-wielding allies as they try to prevent Nefarian Serpine, a necromancer, from unleashing a weapon of terrible power on the world- the sceptre of ancients. The book was retitled "Sceptre Of The Ancients" for the 2009 paperback release in the US and Canada. HarperCollins Audio also publishes the unabridged CD sets of the books read by Rupert Degas.