A new emperor, Aurangzeb, sits on India's glittering Peacock Throne - the throne he seized from his father while the old emperor still lived. He has paid for it with blood: during the brutal civil war he hunted down and killed his brothers. Now he must return the Moghul Empire to the true path and achieve new glory. But the exercise of great power is isolating. With enemies everywhere, who should he trust? Certainly not his sons. He must rely on himself and the knowledge that there are more ways to subdue a man than on the battlefield. But as the years pass memories haunt him - memories of a father who never loved him and a mother who lies in the Taj Mahal, of murdered brothers and of sons and daughters locked in sunless prisons. He tells himself that everything he has done has been necessary - moral, even. But how will his God judge him?