‘Yalpanam’, An Old Colonial House On Coal Island In Malaysia, Is Swarming With Ghosts. Its Inhabitant, One Hundred And Eighty-five Year Old Recluse, Pushpanayagi, Has Been Avoiding Them For Decades. But That Is About To Change. When Eighteen-year-old Neighbour Maxim Cheah, Disgruntled At Home, Arrives On An Apparent Whim At ‘Yalpanam’, They Begin An Unlikely Friendship That Will Rock Maxim’s World, And Send Pushpanayagi Whirling Through Space-time, Back To 19th Century And 1940s Malaya. Will The Ghosts Of The Old Lady’s Past-a Rigid British Lepidopterist, His Melancholic First Wife, His Deceptively Vibrant Second Wife, Their Opium-addicted Servant-release Her What Will Maxim Discover From Her Friendship With Her Enigmatic Neighbour