Catherine MacDonald is astonished to receive from her twin brother—who had apparently drowned a year earlier—a kashmiri shawl, a caddy of unusual tea, and a sheaf of traditional bagpipe music in his handwriting. When had he sent it? And why had he retitled a certain tune "Not Yet Drown'd"?

Irresistibly, she is drawn to India to search for answers. With her stepdaughter and their two maids she follows an obscure trail of clues, and in the course of their journey they meet botanists, smugglers, engineers, soldiers, and artists—as well as love and betrayal. As they grow to understand certain Scottish and Indian paintings and music, they discover unsuspected truths about the man they are seeking.