Catherine MacDonald is living a quiet life in 1820’s Scotland with her brother and her step daughter, Grace. Her husband and twin brother have both died leaving her unsure of her life’s purpose when a package arrives from India. It contains an exotic shawl, unusual tea, and bagpipe music scores in her twin brother’s handwriting. Then a long lost relative of her husband’s, a headstrong, hard woman, comes to take Catherine’s beloved Grace back to America with her. Add to this a mysterious Indian woman who repeatedly comes to Catherine’s aid. Events build until Catherine is forced to flee to India with Grace, determined to find out what really happened to her twin bother.
This novel started off a little slowly, but it is well worth reading through the first few chapters to get to the exotic adventures that fill the rest of the book.