Two sisters and a beautiful mother caught between tradition and love, a family torn apart by tragedy and betrayal. From the award winning short story writer of Blues from the Malabar Coast, comes a novel about two sisters once bound by love and loyalty; a beautiful mother torn between tradition and love; a gentle and caring father who loves his girls but is caught in the middle, seduced by his wife's sophistication. Set against the lush background of wild animals and tea estates of Assam, India, this story weaves through the 50's and 60's and the India-China confrontation of 1962. Tibet is at the heart of this. Assam transforms the close-knit family: the sisters are thrust apart and the sexually frustrated mother uses her powers to manipulate the father. The sisters have to come to terms that the ties that bind them are no more there.