In 1941, newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Wales to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India. When he takes on a more dangerous mission, Nerys is left in the exotic lakeside city of Srinigar, where the colonists dance, flirt, and gossip as if there is no war. When her husband returns, Nerys is a different woman. Years later, clearing out her dead father's house, Mair Ellis discovers an exquisite shawl enfolding a lock of child's hair . . .