Caught in two World Wars, pre-Mutiny skirmishes, and the Great Sepoy Rebellion, the true saga of lives not so "pukkha" as might be supposed. Hugh's back-story exposes child marriage, an adulterous a air over many summers in a Himalayan Hill Station, illegitimate pregnancies and banishment to England. More a poet than a soldier, Hugh, a British O@ cer of the Raj, serves with the 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Ri es in the Kyber Pass bordering the Northwest Frontier Afghanistan. Mountain trekking, skiing, gentlemen's sports, bandits, tribal warlords, missionaries, ordinary men and ghosts are not enough. Bored, Hugh seconds to the Political and Foreign Service in Arabia, Persia, and Waziristan, until disgraced, he is "invited" to return to his regiment. A naked Colonel's dictum "conformity kills" guides Hugh's adventurous life. Partition frees both India and Hugh.