Indraneel, the son of a schoolteacher and brother to activists, has felt the call to revolution ever since he was a young boy. His life’s mission is clear-to free India from its oppressors.

Olivia, the daughter of a ruthless British officer, has spent most of her lonely life tucked away in cantonments. But as she comes of age, she finds herself unable to resist the pull of the people and customs of India-the only home she’s ever known.

Peter is an opportunistic Anglo-Indian orphan torn between his two selves, pledging allegiance to neither, until a chance encounter with revolutionaries changes the course of his life forever.

As the fires of revolution are lit across India, we follow these three lives along the length and breadth of the country-from Amritsar to Calcutta and onwards to Ross Island in the Andamans. Thorns in the Crown tells a story of belonging and courage against the backdrop of India’s struggle for independence and the emergence of a new social order.