It's the dawn of the 20th Century, and Britain's glittering Empire extends far and wide, full of the dangerously seductive promise of untapped riches. At first glance, modest, stammering Howard Carter has nothing whatsoever in common with Aisha, the young Egyptian whose profile bears more than a passing resemblance to Nefertiti's beautiful face depicted on the Pharaonic relics Howard loves so much. Howard's artistic talent takes him on an expedition to try and locate Tutankhamen's tomb in Egypt. There, amidst growing unrest between the tyrannical British rulers and the so-called 'barbarians', he meets Aisha - a bewildering mix of contradictions. A village girl, yet she speaks four languages; Muslim, yet with a tattoo of the cross on her arm; a stranger, yet with an achingly familiar face. As well as being a page-turning gallop through some of the most momentous occasions in recent world history, A Cloudy Day on the Western Shore explores questions of national identity and the implications of European intervention - for better or worse - in the discovery and exploration of some of the most beautiful treasures on earth today.