The memoir of a South Asian immigrant to Canada, whose formative years in India were steeped in a reigning patriarchal culture of honour and shame, in which the burden of the family's good standing rests on the sexual purity of girls and women. The book traces the author's lonely, poignant, often risk-charged struggle to free herself from the oppressive code. As well, the book chronicles her courageous battle to help other South Asian girls and women in Canada step out of their kinsmen's ancient cultural cycle and claim their gender rights as fully equal Canadian citizens.