Third in the epic quartet about the end of the Raj: "Scott throws us into India, wretched and beautiful... His contribution to literature is permanent." - The New York Times Book Review
India, 1943: In a regimental hill station, the ladies of Pankot struggle to preserve the genteel façade of British society amid the debris of a vanishing empire and World War II. A retired missionary, Barbara Batchelor, bears witness to the connections between many human dramas-the love between Daphne Manner and Hari Kumar; the desperate grief an old teacher feels for an India she cannot rescue; and the cruelty of Captain Ronald Merrick, Susan Layton's future husband.
This is the third novel in the Raj Quartet, a series of historical novels that "limn the Anglo-Indian world with its lovers, friends, family servants, soldiers, businessmen, murderers and suicides-all involved in one another's fate" ( The New York Times).
"Scott has the trick of being sympathetic without ever losing his clearsightedness." - Times Literary Supplement

Paul Scott (1920-78), born in London, held a commission in the Indian army during World War II. His many novels include Johnnie Sabib, The Chinese Love Pavilion, and Staying On.