Calcutta, 1756: A city on the brink of bloodshed. Under the rule of an Indian nawab, the line between the British White Town and Indian Black Town is nonetheless all too apparent. Trouble is clearly afoot.

In White Town, Chief Magistrate Howell and Governor Drake plot to outwit the schemes of the Murshidabad Court. In Black Town, the Eurasian girl Sati, believed to be possessed by Kali, finds herself at the centre of a religious cult and manages to cast her spell on many she encounters. And in far-off Murshidabad, Siraj Uddaulah plots to rid his land of its invaders and lays siege to the British in Fort William, a bloody turn in Indian history which culminates in the Black Hole of Calcutta.

This ambitious novel explores not only the events that led up to this famous incident but the lives of a town divided by race, culture and the prejudices that would soon, after the Battle of Plassey, grow unchecked in the era of the Raj.