This remark by a European woman challenges Anees Jung to examine her own identity and is also the point of departure for her latest journey - a country wide odyssey to discover the Indian Muslim woman of today. Her travels take her to women like Mahbubunissa, who vows not to give up purdah until her hair turns grey, and Wajida, who has never adopted it because she deems it a sin to hide what is given by God; the Begum, who never leaves her 'golden cage', a haveli whose interior is now as desolate as its crumbling outer walls, and the Begum's niece who, abandoned by her husband, lives in rented rooms in the city and works for a living.