Saturday, the 27th of February, 1627. The master artist Mansur, who works under the patronage of Mughal emperor Jahangir, must finish his painting of a dodo and prepare for an imminent journey to Kashmir when he is interrupted by a younger colleague, Bichitr

An innocuous remark from this visitor - first to Mansur and a little later to the portraitist Abul Hasan - has dire consequences as more characters at the imperial atelier, the library and the Women's Quarter are drawn into a web of secrets, half-truths and petty rivalries.

At the heart of the story is a jewel-like verse book whose pages Mansur has illuminated and filled with lifelike butterflies. On reaching Verinag, the royal summer retreat in Kashmir, the painter must present the book to its author, the empress Nur Jahan, who had commissioned it as a keepsake for her husband, the emperor Jahangir.

A delay in the book reaching Mansur from the bindery adds to his apprehensions that its very existence is no longer a secret, coupled with dread that so precious an artefact might fall into the wrong hands. What must the painter confront before his masterwork is conveyed safely to Verinag.

Vikramajit Ram is a novelist and non-fiction writer based in Bangalore. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, he formerly practised as a graphic designer. He is the author of Elephant Kingdom: Sculptures from Indian Architecture (2007), Dreaming Vishnus: A Journey through Central India (2008), Tso and La: A Journey in Ladakh (2012) and The Sun and Two Seas (2016).