First published in 1965, this novel is set in the early post-Independence years, when a new republic eagerly looks forward to a future full of hope. Rakesh, a young foreign service officer, who had grown up at a time when young men were ardent nationalists, returns to Delhi after a six-year absence to find many changes. He meets the new Advisor on Foreign Affairs, the controversial Kalyan Sinha, and is once again drawn to the magnetic personality of the politician whose ruthless manipulations are, in a way, a precursor of the moral corruption in the years to come. A rivettingly prescient novel.