In 51 BCE, 18-year-old Cleopatra plays a board game with her handmaiden and companion, Charmion, on the balcony of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. They share a close bond and speak privately in Arabic, a language they adopted after meeting a traveling storyteller—called a hakawati—when Cleopatra was 11. As they play, Cleopatra reflects that this is the day she becomes pharaoh. When Charmion predicts she will lose the game, Cleopatra distracts her by throwing the playing sticks over the balcony.

Looking down at Alexandria, Cleopatra feels uncertain about her ability to rule, haunted by recurring dreams of alternate selves wearing the crown. She bears the mark of the goddess Isis on the back of her neck, identifying her as chosen, but she has received no divine power, whereas her younger brother can breathe underwater. A messenger arrives to announce that her father, Ptolemy XII, has died. Overcome with grief but determined to claim the throne, Cleopatra decides to swim to the palace since it will be quicker than waiting for a boat. For a moment, her resolve wavers until Charmion points out that the playing sticks have landed in a winning position, which she takes as a sign from the gods.

After Charmion helps her undress and secures her crown, Cleopatra swims to Antirhodos Island, arriving naked. She encounters servants collecting dates, who immediately prostrate themselves. When they address her as the pharaoh’s daughter, she corrects them, asserting that she is pharaoh. Feeling her own power for the first time, she resolves to wield it.

Still unclothed, Cleopatra walks through the palace toward the throne room, mindful that any misstep could be used against her. An ibis named Qar shrieks at her—the bird is bonded to her younger sister, Arsinoe, a 14-year-old who possesses the divine gift of understanding bird language from the god Thoth. The sisters, both grieving, walk together to the Temple of Ihy, where their father’s body lies. Cleopatra reflects that she was never meant to rule; her older sister, Berenice, was the intended heir until their father had her killed after her divine gift—chaos magic from the god Apep—caused a civil war and crop failures.

At the temple, Cleopatra vows to ensure Egypt survives. She enters the throne room, forgetting she is naked. Struggling with doubt and fear, she forces herself to climb the three steps to the throne and sits beside her younger brother and co-ruler, Ptolemy XIII, whom the family calls Theos. When Pothinus, the eunuch regent to her brother, objects to her nakedness, she rebukes him by invoking her divine blood, publicly asserting her royal legitimacy. She announces her regnal name, Cleopatra Thea Philopator, and dismisses her exhausted brother from the proceedings.

Seventy days after her father’s death, Cleopatra attends the sealing of his tomb. That evening, she hosts a feast for the governors of Egypt to consolidate support for her new reign. Seated at the high table with her brother and the regent Pothinus, she confronts the Governor of Thebes about tax shortfalls. The governor explains he had an arrangement with her father to pay half his taxes in wine. Pothinus confirms it—revealing the deal was kept from Cleopatra deliberately, to make her appear ignorant. Bound by her father’s word, she reluctantly honors the arrangement, but Pothinus lists five other governors with similar corrupt agreements.

Disgusted, Cleopatra retreats to the beach, where a lyre player from Thebes finds her and reveals that the governor has been raising local taxes for years, causing famine among the people. She makes the musician a courtier and returns to the feast with renewed purpose. She publicly ends the wine arrangement with the Governor of Thebes and warns him against further tax increases. When Pothinus protests, she insists that the public example will pressure other governors to reform. She tells Charmion she now knows she must rule as herself, not as her father’s shadow—though she reflects that in wishing to become a legend, she forgot every story needs a monster.

Two years later, in 49 BCE, Cleopatra has proven herself a capable ruler, eliminating corruption and improving trade routes. As civil war in Rome moves toward Egypt, she visits the construction site of a grand temple to Isis, hoping her offering will finally grant her a divine power. Pothinus informs her that Julius Caesar has defeated Pompey at Pharsalus, and the defeated general may flee to Egypt. Pothinus insists they must kill Pompey to gain Caesar’s favor, but Cleopatra refuses to involve Egypt in Roman politics.

At the Library of Alexandria with Arsinoe, Cleopatra overhears a scholar spreading a rumor that she is not a true Ptolemy and that her lack of divine power is causing the drought. Though it frightens her as a threat to her throne, she shows mercy and pretends not to have heard. Arsinoe, who uses her ibis, Qar, to eavesdrop, urges execution, but Cleopatra refuses.

On the return voyage, they discover an unfamiliar Roman boat in the harbor. A bloodied man in tattered armor stands on the pier—Pompey. Qar attacks him, and Arsinoe rushes forward with a saber, fatally stabbing Pompey in the neck. Crying, she explains she overheard Pothinus’s warning and wanted to help. Pothinus arrives and praises Arsinoe, then gives Theos a blade to behead the corpse as a gift for Caesar. Cleopatra notices the saber Arsinoe used is identical to the one Pothinus gave her brother, and realizes Pothinus had armed her sister. For the first time, she begins to sense the threat he poses.