For some people, home is nowhere. They feel out of place--they are adrift, the stranger in the crowd. It's as if they are forever walking around in shoes that don't fit. Can they find a home, imperfect as it may be? Sometimes, all it takes is a place at the other end of the world--or a person. Nita, a teacher in Kerala, is desperate for a better-paying job and accepts one in Dubai. It is the 1990s, and Dubai is just becoming a boom town. Everything is changing. But Nita struggles to adjust to the city as an immigrant. Her job as a live-in tutor for a young girl puts her in an unfamiliar, servile role with a wealthy family. Nita starts telling the child's mother a story from ancient India, where Darius, a sailor, arrives at an Indian port seeking his fortune. As she tells this tale, making it up as she goes, she finds that she's no longer alone. This is a two-headed story--the narrators Nita and Darius are nested inside each other like Russian dolls. They are both outsiders in unfamilia