Is there in all history a chapter fuller of fascinating interest from every angle of view than the story of the Moguls in India? If it were merely a story of invasion and conquest it would be little memorable. But it is much more than that. It begins as superb adventure it goes on to the solving of complex problems of government of the reconciliation of races and religions it culminates in the gradual consolidation of an empire. At the same time it is the  story of a succession of vivid and  brilliant personalities Babul the adventurous soldier who swam every river he had  to cross lover of poetry and a poet himself with his passion for flowers and  gardens Amber one of the greatest of all rules a man of extraordinary physical strength and courage a mighty hunter with sudden fits of tenderness to all creatures illiterate yet a lover of literature deeply interested in religion and finding good in various faiths far sighted in resolve to identify himself with the country he had conquered and sharing his government with the Indians Norah the  strong ambitious wife of Jeanie who in all but name ruled the empire for her pleasure loving  husband shah Johan the magnificent who built the tag meal as a tomb for his beloved. Dare Shako deeply versed in religion and philosophy but charming and frank in manner and Arranged his brother the superb dissimulator the great captain and austere fanatic by whom he met his death. 

The story culminates in the closing years of shah Johan when his sons whom he had sent to rule over distant provinces for far of their ambition rose against him and against each other.  It is into the heart of this most dramatic crisis that Madame Butttenschon takes us. In choosing the tragic story of Jacamar the elder daughter of Shah Johan she is able to picture to us the succession of terrible events from within. Unable to take an active part in them Jacamar witnesses all. Proud of her lineage proud of the splendid achievements of her family. She endures to see her father imprisoned her beloved brother Dare brought to ignominy and death the House of Timor divided against itself seems to be falling in ruins. And jacamar in the  midst of these calamities suffers most from her own secret and  unhappy passion Madame Butenschon communicates to her readers the storms that shake the heart of her heroine sensitive alike to the beauty of things and persons to physical and mental agitation to the glory of the race from which she comes and the ancient grandeurs of the  land she now belongs to Above all we are made to feel now at a distance now near now imminent the  terrible power of a cold unscrupulous will as Aurangzeb throwing  off the  mask of subservience just at the  crucial moment advances step by step over the  bodies of his brothers to seize his fathers throne.