Data and Big-Bye begin their arranged marriage as strangers, sexually ignorant and under the eagle eye of Big-Bye's domineering mooma. She wants Data to be a proper Hindu doolahin, a modest, obedient daughter-in-law. He, still under his mooma's apron strings, regards Data as his sexual plaything. Data has other ideas and her struggle for independence sets off janjhat in the house. The couple's hesitant steps towards understanding are set at the heart of an acute portrayal of a community in deep cultural crisis. Monar gives us unique access to the lives of Indo-Caribbean workers: their hopes and despairs, their religiosity, their poetry, their bawdiness, their sense of cultural continuity and their awareness that their world has changed.