February 27th, a Saturday, 1627. A younger colleague, Bichitr, interrupts the great painter Mansur, who is employed by Mughal emperor Jahangir, while he is attempting to complete a painting of a dodo and get ready for an upcoming trip to Kashmir. As more characters at the imperial atelier, the library, and the Women's Quarter are entangled into a web of secrets, half-truths, and small-scale rivalries, an innocent statement from this visitor ? first to Mansur and then to the portraitist Abu'l Hasan ? has grave implications. A jewel-like poem book that Mansur has lighted and decorated with realistic butterflies is the centrepiece of the narrative. The artist must deliver the book to the monarch when they arrive in Verinag, the royal summer resort in Kashmir.