This third volume of Mollie Kaye's autobiography continues the story of her lifelong love affair with India, described so vividly in "The Sun in the Morning" and "Golden Afternoon".

This text, however, begins in 1932 with Mollie, aged 24, reluctantly accompanying her parents and sister to what her father hopes will be a pleasant retirement in north China. Mollie finds herself disorientated by the social whirl of Peking, but fascinated with Chinese art and the giddy pleasure of independence as she makes a success of her painting. But the increasingly turbulent politics in China makes it an uncomfortable place for foreigners, and to the great relief of his daughters, their father decides to return to India.

Later on we see Mollie move to cramped digs in London, where she begins her career as a writer - and earn enough money to return to the beloved country of her birth. She describes many happy months spent in India: travelling widely, meeting old and new friends, working during wartime, briefly falling for a "professional heart-breaker" and receiving persistent marriage proposals from a keen suitor. Finally, among the cool hills, scented blossoms and sparkling lakes of Kashmir, this chapter of her story closes as she meets the one true love of her life.