His wife, Protima, has inherited a crumbling mansion in her native Calcutta along with enough money for the couple to renovate the property and retire in luxury, but Ghote is unhappy.

Protima is determined that they should live in the house and enjoy life in the beautiful city that she has not seen since she was a young woman, but the solicitor handling the will advises them to sell and claims he is unable to release any money from the estate to help with their expenses.

Ghote begins to suspect corruption when he learns of a planned housing development close to the mansion but soon his investigation places the couple in grave danger.

The characters are frequently placed in situations where they must perform a moral balancing act between achieving worthy goals and using dishonest and immoral methods to accomplish them.

Evening Standard [2] The novel is set in Calcutta, India and features many of the city's tourist attractions such as the Indian Botanical Gardens, including The Great Banyan tree and the Kalighat Kali Temple.