The powerful short stories in this collection are set against - and frequently driven by - the picturesque yet often violent backdrop of Assam, a province in India's northeast. In one, a young man attempts to escape the confines of middle-class aspirations, only to be brought up against the futility of rebellion. Another finds a mother sharing her daughter's pain when social inhibitions finally catch up with her. Others consider the bloody effects of violence: one sees a young girl lose her tongue to the horrors of conflict, while another depicts the destruction of carefully managed ethnic harmony. All are shot through with a desire to understand, to attempt to explore if not explain, the violence and brutality that have long plagued the beautiful land of Assam and left it populated with ghosts.