Clever, stubborn, and passionate, Jindana was famed for her beauty. Even in her youth she caught the attention of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and once she came of age she became his youngest—and his favorite—wife. And when her young son, Dalip, unexpectedly inherited the throne, Jindana took on the role of regent and turned from a spoiled mistress of luxurious quarters into a wise and resolute ruler, ready to defend her people and her son’s claim to the throne against the British Empire. A love story between a ruler and a commoner, a bitter parable of loyalty and betrayal, a passionate account of an unbreakable bond between mother and son—Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel traces the fate of one of the most fearless women of the nineteenth century, leaving behind an unusually vivid mark.