Born to British parents from families with a tradition of service in India and China, Kaye's "conversation" is rich with recollections of a carefree childhood in British-governed India (The Raj) and of a more restricted adolescence in school at "home" in drab England, so far from her real home and from her beloved father and social butterfly of a mother. This rag-bag of exotic and mundane scraps (a metaphor that Kaye establishes in the foreword) spills forth palpable scenes of family and folklore, of friendships and of memorable events.