Sandy Thakur, Indian aristocrat and Anglophile, falls in love with Emma Franks. Her mother is against them marrying, but her brother, Ted, who knew Sandy as a boy during World War II, is an ally. Beginning with the deaths of Sandy and Emma, the novel recalls events leading up to the violent incident that forces them to leave England for India, there introducing Sona, a Tibetan refugee; Bill Clayton, a missionary and Dinesh, Sandy's ward. Dinesh disapproves of Sandy's love for England, but grows to regret his hostility. Later, his decision to divorce his unfaithful wife reaps a death threat from her drug-baron father, who will stop at nothing to defend family honour, and after his servant is beaten up by thugs, Dinesh escapes to Goa, where he meets Alice and confides in her. They seek refuge in an ashram in Poona till that is jeopardised and together they fly to England. There he learns that Ransingh, his caretaker, has been falsely arrested for Sona's murder and feels honour-bound to return to India to save him.Braving certain death, somehow he returns to Alice and short-lived happiness.