In the first-part of a two-part tale of female-led dominance on the East Coast of India, Berndt Schuster introduces us to disgraced American diplomat, Gavin Talbot. A man divorced and estranged from his family and given the option of either taking up a role in the Visa-Department of the US Consulate in Chennai or finding himself without a career at all. An ultimatum, once accepted that places him on a collision course with destiny in the form of his new Indian housekeeper, Shreya. A matronly woman in her thirties who intends to be far more to her new American employer than the diligent employee who allows his new home to run with complete efficiency. And a woman for whom our American abroad soon develops a fixation. With her feet! Berndt Schuster is the pen-name of a Mannheim-born commodities-trader currently working out of London.