 When her father dies, Epifania Parerga, an Italian in London, becomes the world s richest woman. She feels incomplete without a husband and falls in love with a humble, Indian physician, Ahmed el Kabir, much loved by his indigent English patients. He eschews physical pleasure, so he rejects her overtures, which include sexual flirtation, offers of wealth, an opportunity to run a state-of-the-art clinic, and then her simple and direct declaration of love. They agree to a contest: she ll try the test of love his mother taught him (to live for 90 days with only 500 rupees), and she asks him to try her father s test: to turn £500 into £15,000 within 3 months. She s game; will he even try?