During Britain's rule of India, the "Raj women" were expected to create a replica of British society in the face of almost insuperable difficulties. Exiled to a strange land, surrounded by people whose language, customs, and religion were mysterious and for the most part alien, how did these women react and live? How did they adjust, if at all, to life in bungalows with teams of servants, to repeated moves and heartbreaking separations from their families, to the heat, illness, loneliness, and boredom, to holidays in hill-stations and the unforgettable Indian landscapes?

Focusing in particular on the 1850s to 1947, Margaret MacMillan explores those questions in fascinating detail, drawing on the women's own letters and memoirs, on novels and interviews with relatives, including her own grandmother. Generously illustrated, the book vividly brings to life the experiences of these women--exotic, jolly, humdrum, tragic--for contemporary readers.