Professor Avaran Kuriakose specialises in the history of the Deccan. A former colleague and friend calls him to the erstwhile state of Arcot to decipher a set of clues contained in a Masonic Lodge Minutes Book and a 250 year old diary. Avaran locates a long lost family heirloom with a gory past. He is a Freemason and Knight Templar and knows his life is in danger because of his involvement in this assignment. The story has a highly readable account of the Carnatic Wars at the end of which the English East India Company emerged as a colonial power. Political discussions give an insight into some of the tensions over the hangovers of British rule, notably the English language and the Indo Anglians. There is a brief discussion on the Anglo Indians of mixed blood, most of whom have emigrated to the UK and Australia due to a sense of insecurity. Avaran's life is endangered when he visits the medieval Gingee Fort and again when he is assaulted in a moving train by a jealous family member. A historically credible reconstruction of events attempts to explain the mysterious disappearance of the vast treasure of the Vijayanagara Empire.