"Layla Roy has defied the fates. Despite being born under an inauspicious horoscope, she is raised to be educated and independent by her eccentric grandfather, Dadamoshai. And by cleverly manipulating the hand fortune has dealt her, she has even found love with Manik Deb--a man betrothed to another. All were minor miracles in India that spring of 1943, when young women's lives were predetermined--if not by the stars, then by centuries of family tradition and social order"