When a ticket officer apprehends a ticketless traveller at the Amritsar Railway Station, he is shocked to discover that the penniless young man in tattered clothes is none other than the widely acclaimed writer Gupteshwar. But even more disconcerting than the state of the author is the story of his new novel, one that lays bare the moral rot besieging twentieth-century Punjab. As the author reads from his unfinished manuscript, it becomes clear that the tale of the two women he is weaving is far from fictional. With its nested narratives, rich prose and fascinating depiction of quotidian life, Nanak Singh's pivotal novel paints an unsparing portrait of a society infected with corruption, casteism and appalling inequality, where those who position themselves as guardians of morality are the ones most willing to abuse their power.