India, 1943: In a regimental hill station, the ladies of Pankot struggle
to preserve the genteel façade of British society amid the debris of a
vanishing empire and World War II. A retired missionary, Barbara
Batchelor, bears witness to the connections between many human dramas;
the love between Daphne Manner and Hari Kumar; the desperate grief an
old teacher feels for an India she cannot rescue; and the cruelty of
Captain Ronald Merrick, Susan Layton's future husband.