Bombay 1951. A political rally ends in tragedy when India's first female police detective Persis Wadia kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive new defence minister a man calling for war with India's new post-Independence neighbours. With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassin's co-conspirators - aided by agents from Britain's MI6 security service - Persis is quickly relegated to the sidelines. But then she is given a second case the burned body of an unidentified white man found on a Bombay beach. As she pursues both investigations - with and without official sanction - she soon finds herself headed to the country's capital New Delhi a city where ancient and modern India openly clash. Meanwhile Persis's colleague Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch lies in a hospital fighting for his life as all around him the country tears itself apart in the prelude to war. . .

Part of the Inspector Wadia series.