The Los Angeles Times bestseller from the acclaimed author of Cloud Mountain is a suspenseful novel of rescue and redemption set in India and Central Asia at the start of the Cold War, featuring two heroines whose fates are intertwined. When a plane carrying American journalist Aidan Shaw goes down in Kashmir in 1949, his wife Joanna refuses to accept that he is dead. Convinced her husband's disappearance is no accident, Joanna enlists the help of his best friend, Lawrence Malcolm, a member of Australia's secret service. In search of answers, they set off, bringing along a translator named Kamla, a girl Joanna has rescued from an Indian brothel, or flash house. As their journey leads them across Central Asia, this unlikely band finds strength and unexpected passion in their midst, as well as one cruel revelation after another. But can their bond endure the ultimate betrayal?