Carys Davies writes odd and lonely men so well! After a breakdown, librarian Hilary Byrd flees to India where a padre offers him use of the mission house up in the hills. Byrd settles in meeting various characters including the padre's adopted daughter, and after a fall, the taxi driver Jamshed. Davies lets us into the heads of other people, such as Ravi, who hoping to become a country and western singer buys a horse. It all leads to two complicated misunderstandings which are resolved at the end of the book perhaps a little too quickly. It's not my favourite Carys Davies book - read West or Clear or The Redemption of Gallen Pike if you're looking for that. But her writing and characterisation, as ever, is superb.