The novel begins with the story of Barbie Batchelor, a retired missionary schoolteacher, who finds a place as a paying guest with Mabel Layton, a member of the aristocracy of the English in India, at Rose Cottage in Pankot. Barbie and Mabel become close. Mabel tells Barbie that she will only go to Ranpur when she's buried, which Barbie interprets to mean that she wants to be buried in Ranpur, next to the grave of her late husband, James Layton. Barbie is not accepted by the upper-class of Pankot and is treated as a peculiar and unwanted intruder. She is haunted by the attack on Edwina Crane, another missionary schoolteacher, and by Edwina's subsequent suicide by fire. Pankot society does not know what to make of Barbie.