In this book, the author, great-granddaughter of a ‘coolie', embarks on a journey into the past. Traversing three continents and trawling through colonial archives, she excavates not only her great-grandmother's story (she sailed in 1903 – pregnant and travelling alone – from India to Guyana as a ‘coolie'), but also the repressed history of some quarter of a million other coolie women, shining a light on their complex lives.