As the flames of independence continue to threaten the Raj, leaders of the Indian Congress are rounded up and put into British prisons. Meanwhile, Mable Layton and her daughters are stranded in their colonial mansion awaiting the return of Colonel Layton from the war.

As the flames of independence continue to threaten the Raj, leaders of the Indian Congress are rounded up and put into British prisons. Meanwhile, Mable Layton and her daughters are stranded in their colonial mansion awaiting the return of Colonel Layton from the war.

In The Day of the Scorpion, Scott draws us deeper in to his epic of India at the close of World War II. With force and subtlety, he recreates both private ambition and perversity, and the politics of an entire subcontinent at a turning point in history.

As the scorpian, encircled by a ring of fire, will sting itself to death, so does the British raj hasten its own destruction when threatened by the flames of Indian independence. Brutal repression and imprisonment of India's leaders cannot still the cry for home rule. And in the midst of chaos, the English Laytons withdraw from a world they no longer know to seek solace in denial, drink, and madness.