A young man gives up his birthplace in India for a dream country founded by Jinnah. He starts from scratch in the newly established city of Karachi, which after Partition is suddenly thronged by a huge number of spirited Muslims ready to lead from the front. However, the past still hounds him. His dilemma becomes even more pronounced with the rapid breakdown of law and order in Karachi and the subsequent separation of Bangladesh from West Pakistan. A rich portrait of the new culture of urban Pakistan fostered by people who came to the other side from Lucknow, Meerut and Delhi, this outstanding novel strives to make sense of the chaos in Karachi, telling us in searing prose the story of Pakistan's disillusionment.