Los Angeles, 1991. Maximilian Ophuls is knifed to death on thedoorstep of his illegitimate daughter India, slaughtered by hisKashmiri driver, a mysterious figure who calls himself Shalimarthe Clown. The dead man is a World War II Resistance hero, a manof formidable intellectual ability and much erotic appeal, a formerUnited States ambassador to India, and subsequently America'scounter-terrorism chief. The murder looks at first like a politicalassassination but turns out to be passionately personal.

This is the story of Max, his killer, and hisdaughter - and of a fourth character, thewoman who links them all. The story of adeep love gone fatally wrong, destroyed bya shallow affair, it is an epic narrative thatmoves from California to France, England,and above all, Kashmir: a ruined paradise,not so much lost as smashed.