For rash, awkward Gaythi, there is always something amiss. Daughter of an extensive and wealthy Muslim upper-class family in pre-Partition India, she's expected to be demure, to have poise and to grow willingly into the roles of mother and wife. Gaythi does not know what she wants but she's certainly not keen to settle for less than what she believes in. A series of tragic and unexpected events suddenly threaten to split her home as well as her country. Exile follows and Gaythi is forced to assume responsibility for her haughty and powerful mother. Touchingly and with carefully-crafted detail, Altaf Fatima describes the impact of change on the lives of an entire people. A parallel narrative runs through the novel, the relationship of Gaythi and Safdar Liu Chu, a Chinese immigrant who was forced to come to the subcontinent in search of livelihood. The brutal, stony divide of the Himalayas which partitioned two ancient cultures, although both Gaythi and Safdar Liu Chu share the same religion, has been dealt with delicately and realistically.