Eight-year-old Muslim Laxmi is orphaned during the 1947 Partition of India. Taken in by a Hindu refugee couple she goes first to England then to New Zealand, where they settle at Te Papapa, Auckland. Here the wife treats her as a slave. She finds solace in her dancing and puppets.

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In her mid-teens she flees and finds refuge with a Muslim husband and wife and his brother.

Violated by the husband she again flees, and this time is ‘adopted’ by a kindly Maori matriarch and her grown children.

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Pregnant by her rapist she has the child while in the care of the family, but has no love for him. Tragedy sends her away again: this time to England, where she continues her dancing career, and through a friend performs with her puppets in East London streets.

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Returning to New Zealand she coincidentally meets the brother of her rapist, who harbours her. She resumes her performing and tutoring dancing career: uninterrupted until old age.

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Ebook only