"Ram Karan, a corrupt official in the Physical Education Department of the Delhi school system, lives in one of the city's slums with his widowed daughter and his little granddaughter. Bumbling, ironical, sad, Ram is also a man corroded by a guilty secret.".

"When Rajiv Gandhi, the soon-to-be Prime Minister, is murdered, the country is plunged into confusion and Ram, as his department's resident bribe collector, is trapped in a series of escalating, possibly deadly political betrayals. While he tries to protect himself and his family, his daughter reveals a crime that he had hoped would be buried forever.

Ram's struggle to survive, and to make amends after a life of deception, thrusts him among gangsters and movie stars, into riots and morgues."--BOOK JACKET.