Pretty and indulged, Olivia is married to Douglas, a government official, and, providing she survives the heat and dust, is set to present him with a family and to augment his career. This is 1923 and wives are expected to uphold all that the British flag in India represents.
Fifty years later, another woman arrives in India to find out where Olivia went wrong and why her name is taboo in family circles. In her diary she logs both Olivia's and her own journey, only to find that the teeming, unfathomable continent offers many paths - and some blind alleys - to those who look to another horizon.
Was Olivia seeking a way out of her caste? Is the diarist doing precisely the same, and is there mirrored in their experiences, so similar and so different, a most profound and enigmatic lesson?
Fifty years later, another woman arrives in India to find out where Olivia went wrong and why her name is taboo in family circles. In her diary she logs both Olivia's and her own journey, only to find that the teeming, unfathomable continent offers many paths - and some blind alleys - to those who look to another horizon.
Was Olivia seeking a way out of her caste? Is the diarist doing precisely the same, and is there mirrored in their experiences, so similar and so different, a most profound and enigmatic lesson?
