From the heartland of India, a tale of love and freedom for the ages On the hot floodplains of the Kosi River, Gulabiya is a young farmhand in love with Balesar, the manager of a nearby farm's fieldhands. When Balesar decides to till his own land, he is joined in this enterprise by his Gulabo.

Their dreams, most moderate, attract the wrath of Balesar's landlord. Gulabiya is betrayed by her own family, leading to a heartbreaking separation from her lover.

Meanwhile, the village's wealthy power brokers scheme to sabotage Balesar's success. The powerful believe they have suppressed yet another attempt at resistance, but they couldn't be more wrong.

What follows is a tale that shocked and scandalized readers when it was first published in 2008, a story that breaks down the realities of farm labour and life in twenty-first-century India. In this caste- and class-ridden society, Gulabiya and Balesar's audacious escape from servitude will shake the very earth they till for others.