?I can hardly imagine it, but everything will be different tomorrow. I?ve looked forward to it for years. I?ll truly be Sundaram?s wife, together in body as in spirit . . .? But that tomorrow never comes, and at just fourteen, Aru is left a widow. Worse, the village whispers name Sundaram a drunkard and a thief?the thief who called down the wrath of the local goddess by stealing the most precious jewel from her temple. The future Aru once envisioned vanishes, leaving only bleak and endless days ahead. So when a ray of hope appears in the form of the landlord's children offering her a job as their grandmother's companion, Aru seizes the opportunity. In the landlord's house, Aru gains an education, finds that her charge is an unexpected ally, and dreams impossibly of having a profession of her own one day. But she also learns uncomfortable truths. Soon, her very life is in danger . . . The White Lotus is a gripping murder mystery and a rich social portrait of the plight of widows in rural Tamil Nadu at the very start of the twentieth century.