ABOUT
THE BOOK

The time is circa 520BC. The setting is ancient India from Benares to Takshila. Economic circumstances cause the two daughters of a small-time farmer to be assigned two very different roles: the elder being given in marriage to an ambitious, social climbing merchant, while the younger girl is sold as an apprentice to a wealthy city courtesan, whose role she eventually inherits. Meanwhile a young man from a good family falls in with a gang of bandits, is captured, and paraded through the streets of the city prior to execution. The younger of the two sisters decides to save him… and thereby sets in motion a chain of events that dramatically impacts on the lives of all the characters.