Patna Hall, Auntie Sanni's hotel on the shimmering Coromandel coast, is the idyllic setting to which Mary and Blaise escape on honeymoon But immediately they arrive the tranquillity of the place is soured by Mary's growing sense of isolation from her husband malicious undercurrents in the gossip of staff and finally - irrevocably - in her first meeting with Krishnan, the local election candidate of the Root and Flower Party