The stories in this collection span two worlds - the restless, aspiring society of New York's Upper East side, and the world of India's capital city, New Delhi, where the old India is giving way to one powered by industry and property development A rich cast of characters inhabits these stories - Indian businessmen, holy women, students, society hostesses and ambitious young politicans New Yorkers preoccupied with money yet in search of meaning, struggling with their longings and failures and complicated sex lives