A young English woman goes to India to reconstruct the life of Olivia, her grandfather's first wife. Olivia had married Douglas in England some 50 years earlier and moved with him to Satipur, India. After she first met the Nawab—at a dinner party at his palace in Khatm—she was certain he would, within the week, visit her in Satipur. She was correct (he arrived with his full retinue and stayed the day). It was after that first visit she began writing Marcia.
Olivia and the Nawab first become friends and then lovers. When she realized she was pregnant, she told the Nawab and then her husband Douglas and she had the Begum, the Nawab's mother, arrange an abortion. Following the abortion, she went directly to the palace in Khatm and the Nawab later purchased and maintained a.....
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