For fans of The Tea-Planter's Wife and Victoria Hislop comes a gripping story of doomed love and secrets in 1940s Kashmir. Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Wales in 1938 to accompany her missionary husband on a posting to India. In the city of Srinagar, the British live on carved wooden houseboats and dance and gossip as if there is no war. But life becomes darker when the men are sent away to fight. Nerys is caught up in a dangerous friendship, one that changes her forever. Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her father's house, she finds an antique shawl with a lock of child's hair wrapped up in its folds. Tracing her grandparents' roots back to Kashmir, Mair uncovers a story of great love and great sacrifice.