Bombay, 1951. A political rally ends in tragedy when India s first female police detective, Persis Wadia, kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive new defence minister, a man calling for war with India s new post-Independence neighbours.

With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassin s co-conspirators—aided by agents from Britain s MI6 security service—Persis is quickly relegated to the sidelines. But then she is given a second case, the burned body of an unidentified white man found on a Bombay beach. As she pursues both investigations—with and without official sanction —she soon finds herself headed to the country s capital, New Delhi, a city where ancient and modern India openly clash.

Meanwhile, Persis s colleague, Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, lies in a hospital fighting for his life as all around him the country tears itself apart in the prelude to war…