Sent to India to find a husband, Mariana Givens is facing the prospect of returning to Sussex ignominiously single. But the vastness of India has been a revelation. And before she leaves, Mariana is to accompany the Governor-General's party on their journey upcountry to meet with the Punjab's ageing Maharajah. Little does she know it, but Marianna is being pulled into the fate of a child whose existence she isn't yet aware of. For 18-month-old Saboor is being held hostage by the capricious Maharajah, who views him as a talisman against encroaching decrepitude. But the Maharajah has no concept of a child's needs and, with his mother poisoned, Saboor is dying from neglect. According to Saboor's grandfather, the visionary Shaikh Waliullah, only the young woman from Sussex can save him.