The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Clark, P. Djèlí. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (Dead Djinn Universe). Tom Doherty Associates. 2019. Kindle.

The novella is narrated in the past tense with a third-person limited that focuses on Agent Hamed Nasr. Hamed was an agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. The setting was Cairo, Egypt, in the early 1900s. However, the city was full of magic and djinns because a Soudanese genius named al-Jahiz had opened a portal through the Kaf to another dimension. Hamed typically worked alone on low-stakes cases, but he was partnered with a rookie, Onsi, by the agency. On their first day together, they visited the Superintendent of Tram Safety and Maintenance at Ramses Station, Bashir, who told them that one of the tram cars that flew through the city was haunted and that a woman was attacked the previous day. The agents inspected the tram and were attacked by a smoky creature who pushed them out of the tram.

The agents returned the next day and informed Bashir that the haunting was being caused by a djinn, not a ghost. Hamed told Bashir the plan to remove the djinn, but it would cost a lot because they would have to hire an elder djinn (a Marid) who could act as an intermediary between the agents and the lesser djinn. Bashir refused to pay the bill and said it was the Ministry’s responsibility to get rid of the djinn and protect the public. The agents left and ran into a group of women protestors. The agents debated how to proceed at a restaurant. Their department had no extra funds so they could not afford to hire a djinn. The waitress overhead them and suggested that they try a Zār ritual instead. Hamed does not trust the women’s folk remedy, but he agrees to meet with her friend, Nadiyaa, since there is no other option.

The agents arrived at Nadiyaa’s office and realized it was located within the headquarters of the Egyptian Feminist Sisterhood. A djinn receptionist brought the agents in to see Nadiyaa, who was sitting beside a “boilerplate eunuch,” which was a sort of magically powered robot. They told her about the haunting, but she could not help because Zār rituals were not exorcisms, but delicate ceremonies that appeased spirits within human bodies. Onsi argued that because the tram was powered by magic and had a mind of its own, she could perform the ceremony upon the tram. However, she countered that, if the tram was sentient, then she did not want to contribute to the Ministry’s enslavement of the tram. She was a radical member of the sisterhood and believed that all sentient beings, even boilerplate eunuchs, should be free. However, Onsi convinced her that she had a moral duty to help the tram if it was sentient and haunted.

Nadiyaa and her sisters set up the Zār ceremony on the tram. However, the creature attacked all the women and ripped their shirts off. The creature also attacked Fahima and ripped at the metal of her robot stomach. Then, the hag cursed Nadiyaa and started shaking the tram. The group all rushed outside and Nadiyaa informed the agents that the creature was not a djinn at all. She said that it had potentially spoken in a Turkic dialect, but she could not be sure. Onsi argued that it had been Armenian. Suddenly, he and Hamed remembered that Bashir had recently visited Armenia. They confronted him and he admitted that he had a secret smuggling ring that traded in pastries and candies. Somewhere along the way, someone had smuggled the creature in without permission. The agents agreed not to turn Bashir in for breaking the law, but they made him pay Nadiyaa’ bill for the ceremony. The agents investigated Albanian creatures and learned that the monster was an al, a shape shifting beast that ate babies from their mother’s stomach or their carriages.

Onsi and Hamed decided to dress up as pregnant women and lure the monster out. They went to Ramses Station and saw that women were congregating there because parliament was deciding whether or not women would be allowed to vote that day. They went up to the rooftop aerial yard and boarded the tram, which Bashir then started and ran on an unused track. The al sat down next to Hamed and stroked his fake-pregnant stomach. Onsi snuck up behind, but the al sensed the trap and attacked. The al crashed the tram into the station and took off down into the main station where all the women were. Onsi and Hamed chased after the monster, but they could not get through the crowds. The al approached a young mother and her baby and tried to attack. However, a group of women warded the monster off with their hamsas. Hamed and Onsi made it through the crowd and hit the al with an iron blade, which enabled them to arrest the al. Hamed sent Onsi home and filled out paperwork at the Ministry. He ran into his colleague, Fatma, and asked about one of her cases. She started to tell him her story.