The novel depicts Karan, the last Vaghela ruler of Gujarat (c. 1296–1305) who was defeated by the Turkish forces of Allauddin Khilji in 1298.

The Rajput king Karan Vaghela rules Anhilwad Patan, a large kingdom located in north Gujarat, and is well-served by his prime minister, Madhav.

The king becomes besotted by her and, after pondering for a long time, decides to set aside all considerations of decency and propriety in order to avail himself of the woman.

Madhav's brother is killed by the king's men while making a heroic but vain attempt to protect his sister-in-law.

Madhav eventually reaches Delhi, where he persuades the Muslim sultan Allauddin Khilji to invade Gujarat, promising him all help in the venture and much plunder at the end of it.

On his part, King Karan Vaghela performs many heroic feats on battlefield, but eventually loses not just his kingdom but also his wife, Kaularani.

[citation needed] After the defeat, Karan gathers what remains of his family and followers and flees to Baglan in south Gujarat, to seek refuge with his old friend Ramdev, the Maratha ruler of Deogadh.

It is depicted in the book that Karan Vaghela dies a martyr on the field of battle and does not live to witness invasion of his motherland by invaders.

The British administrators of Bombay Presidency were encouraging local Indians to write books for educational purpose.

[3] According to his son and biographer Vinayak Mehta, he wanted to write a historical novel on the pivotal incident in the history of Gujarat.

The invasion by Khilji, the story of Madhav's revenge, the defeat of Karan Vaghela and the fall of Patan had been subjects of the oral traditions of bards, the Bhats of Gujarat.

Many contemporary Jain chronicles such as the Prabandhachintamani of Merutunga (1305), Dharmaranya (written between 1300 and 1450), and Tirthakalpataru of Jinaprabha Suri gave accounts of the invasion.

[6] Mehta had drawn the core story of Karan Vaghela as well several detailed description of the historical time from the Rasamala; a collection of bard tales, Persian texts, Jain chronicles, folklore of Gujarat; published by Alexander Kinloch Forbes with help of Dalpatram in 1858.

[6] For scenes in Delhi, he had used Persian texts such as the works of Amir Khusrau, Khilji's court poet, and the accounts of Ziauddin Barni.

Karan Vaghela's second battle with Khilji's forces and the capture of his daughter Devaldevi were described by Amir Khusrau in the masnavi Deval Devi Khizr Khan, popularly known as Ishqia.

Mehta had written in the first edition,[6] My intention in writing the book was to draw as accurately as possible a picture of how things were at the time of the story – the manners of the men and women of the time and their way of thinking; the principles of government of the Rajput kings of Gujarat and the Muslim emperors of Delhi; the heroism and the pride of caste of the men and women of Rajasthan, and the passion and the religious fanaticism of the Muslims.His use of several types of historical sources gives detailed and accurate account of the historical times as described in the sources.

[1][3][4][6] Sisir Kumar Das notes that the story became very popular due to evocation of the glory of ancient town of Surat, the residence of Mehta.

[1] It was translated in English by Tulsi Vatsal and Aban Mukherji; and was published in Viking by Penguin Books India in 2015.