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A sweeping, vibrant first novel following a family of Indian sharecroppers at the onset of World War I, revealing a little-known part of California history1913: Ram Singh arrives in California's Imperial Valley, reluctantly accepting his friend Karak's offer to come work on a small cantaloupe farm. Ram is unmoored: fleeing a traumatic incident in Oregon, he desperately longs to return to his wife and newborn son in India - but is duty-bound to make his fortune first. In the Valley, civilization is still new and the rules are ever-shifting. Alongside Karak, his uncle Jivan, and Jivan's nephew Amarjeet, Ram joins in the struggle to make ends meet as a sharecropper in the unforgiving desert. The Valley is full of immigrants from other continents and the stakes are unceasingly high - just one bad harvest or unfair sale could destabilize the entire family.