On a March day, a visitor from Europe arrives at an imposing, crumbling fortress in the heart of India, where she had once been as a child. This was once the seat of the former kingdom of Samthar. The small realm no longer exists, but there is still a Maharaja who rules over the fort and the people of this extreme region. As the first-person narrator spends time there, she becomes increasingly entangled in a web of former courtiers, priests, wandering ascetics, relatives, and servants of the king, culminating in a mysterious figure who lies at the foot of her bed each night and disappears at dawn. One day, a couple visits: the Maharaja's niece, Ganga, and her husband. They come from a very different India, one of technology and high finance. From the very beginning, a special relationship develops between them.