The Glass Palace

The king watches Rajkumar’s ship prepare to leave as Sawant serves him tea. Sawant slips into Dolly’s room as she sleeps. Hesitatingly, he tells Dolly that Rajkumar is leaving and he offers to take her down to the port. They rush to the dock and Dolly leaps from the carriage, running toward the departing boat. Though the boat is leaving the bay, she shouts. It turns. As it approaches the jetty, Rajkumar leaps from the deck and approaches Dolly, puffing on a cheroot. She tells him not to leave.

Dolly and Rajkumar are to be married. The civil ceremony takes place in the collector’s office in secret; Uma fears what will happen if the queen finds out. After the wedding, Dolly decides to see the queen.

By the time they arrive at the compound, it is already dark. The gates are locked and Dolly is refused entry. The queen already knows and has forbidden anyone to utter Dolly’s name ever again. Dolly falls to the ground, sobbing, as the princesses wave quietly from a distant window. Picking up the bundle of Dolly’s clothes, Rajkumar leads them back to the bungalow.

Uma finds the collector’s study door ajar. She tells her husband that she wants to return home and that he will be able to remarry; she feels useless in Ratnagiri and, without Dolly, has no reason to stay. The collector reveals that he has been fired from his position and is to return to Bombay.

With his days in Ratnagiri numbered, the collector decides to take a boat out on the bay. The king watches through his golden binoculars as the sea swallows up the boat and the man. Sawant does not hear the king’s call but the queen does. The queen leans over the balcony and spits into the bushes to commemorate the death of her jailer.

Saya John watches from a jetty as Rajkumar returns. He has offered his home to the newlyweds until they are settled. As they approach Rangoon, Rajkumar notices that Dolly has become increasingly withdrawn. He goes to fetch her to the deck, keen that she should see the city skyline, but Dolly is curled up in her cabin bed. She lays quietly as everyone else disembarks the ship.

Twenty minutes later, Rajkumar ushers Saya John into the cabin. He hands her a gold bracelet that belonged to his wife. In the carriage, Saya John also hands Rajkumar a gift: a ball of rubber. In Saya’s hometown of Malacca, the rubber business is booming. He envisages the business as a project for Rajkumar or for his son, Mathew, who is still in America. Rajkumar is unconvinced of the plan.

Uma returns home to be with her parents after her husband’s death, beholden to the traditions surrounding widows: her head is shaved, she cannot eat meat, and she must always wear white. But she has resources, inherited from the collector. She receives a letter from Dolly, inviting her to Rangoon.

Dolly welcomes Uma into the home, which is still under construction. Together, the two explore the city. Though she enjoys herself, Uma envies Dolly’s happiness. Rajkumar suggests that everything he and his wife have, they owe to Uma, so Uma asks a favor: book her passage to Europe.

Uma tours Europe, sending postcards back to Dolly. In Marseille, her sari is mistaken for a Cambodian dress. Dolly reads her friend’s letters while drinking a concoction prescribed by a midwife. Two months later, Dolly miscarries. As she recovers, she reads another letter from Uma, who is now in London. There, she has met a number of Indians, with whom she has discussed India’s struggles. They also recommend that Uma visit New York, where she may find common cause with the local Irish population.

Rajkumar reads the letter and suggests that she look up Mathew. By the time the letter reaches Uma, Mathew has already sought her out. The reason for Mathew’s reticence to return home is clear: he has a fiancé, an American woman named Elsa. Dolly tells Rajkumar, who passes the information to Saya John.

Dolly learns that she is pregnant again and she forgets about her friends’ escapades. As she lays in hospital, Saya John enters and thanks her for returning his son to him. Dolly gives birth to a boy, Neel. Four years later, she gives birth to another boy, Dinu. By this time, Elsa has had her first child and lives with Mathew and Saya John in Malacca. Rajkumar and Dolly go to visit them.

They find a bustling, growing town. Dolly hears news of Uma, who now has a job and is involved in political matters. They take a tour of the rubber plantation and learn of its history. As they look over the plans for houses, Saya John shows Rajkumar a newspaper clipping: Grand Duke Franz Ferdinand has been assassinated in Sarajevo. Neither man can fathom the implication.