I cannot undo what they have made of me. I cannot go back and smoothen out the wrinkled brow of my childhood . . . there are things I must settle, gaps I must fill. Both for their sake and mine.' It is the 1930s and the fire of the freedom movement from distant Bengal and Delhi is warming the languid bones of the small town in Mysore, where Kaveri and Setu grow up. Theirs is a liberal, prosperous household and the family takes its privileges for granted. Mylaraiah, their father, believes that they are twice protected from such delusions as -swaraj'"once by the British and then by the Maharaja. While Setu absorbs their father's unquestioning veneration of the British, Kaveri, profoundly affected by Mahatma Gandhi's visit to their town, comes to recognize their attempts to be -more English than the English' as rather shameful. In an attempt to follow her heart and take charge of her own future, Kaveri defies her father and participates in the Quit India march organized by Shyam,...