When freedom came to India so did violence. Three hundred thousand were slaughtered,a hundred thousand women were raped, abducted, mutilated, twelve million people were rendered homeless. The theme of this powerful novel is how that violence erupted in the lives of ordinary men and women and in the lives of three brilliantly depicted central characters - Gian, a follower of Gandhi, Debi-dayal, an ardent terrorist, and Debi-Dayal's sister, Sundari, a ruthless woman who holds nothing sacred and is half in love with her own brother.