The middle decades of the nineteenth century in Punjab were a time of the disintegration of the Sikh empire and the emergence of a colonial one. Situating her study in this turbulent age, Author delves into the tumultuous life of a hitherto unknown woman, Piro, and her little-known sect, the Gulabdasis. Piro’s forceful autobiographical narrative knits a fanciful tale of abduction and redemption, while also claiming agency over her life. Piro’s is the extraordinary voice of a low-caste Muslim and a former prostitute who reinvents her life as an acolyte in a heterodox sect.