This exquisite novel unfolds a story of ambition and love at the glittering court of the Mughal emperor Akbar in 16h century Hindustan. Bihzad is the most gifted of all the young artists in the emperor's workshop, and the son of the emperor's chief artist. When Akbar decides to move his court from his ancient capital at Agra to the new city he is building at Fatehpur Sikri, he takes the brilliant young man with him. There, cut off from family and the distractions of Agra, Bihzad's troubling obsession with his master is allowed to develop. When his illicit love becomes public knowledge, Akbar has no choice but to banish his young favourite to the wildest corner of his empire. Politics and paintings fill the pages of this vividly imagined novel.