Many years later, their daughter Jaddanbai moves to Bombay, and becomes a star of the early talkies, Chateau Marine on Marine drive is famous for its evenings mehfils and for the dreams it nurtures. Regular visitors include Dilip Kumar, Mehboob and Kamal Amrohi. It is also the home of Fatima Jaddanbai's daughter who will set the screen ablaze as Nargis. Then comes the moment that transform their lives: During the making of "Mother India", Nargis is trapped in a circle of flames, and Sunil Dutt, the male star, risks his life to save her. They fall in love, and so starts one of the legendary love story of India's film world.

In a small town in the heart of India, a young girl, barely alive, is found in a sprawling house where thirteen people lie dead. The girl has been beaten and abused, and the house still smoulders from the fire that raked through it. The girl now awaits her trial for the murders that the local police believe she has committed. But an unconventional social worker, Simran Singh, is convinced of her innocence. As Simran begins to examine the circumstances around the case, she encounters a terrifying web of prejudice and deceit in which lives of women are endangered from birth. Brilliantly descriptive of tradition-bound Punjab, Kishwar Desai's debut novel introduces the feisty and independent Simran, whose determination to seek out the truth places her at odds with her environment. What she discovers will change her forever.