The author, a former special secretary of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), examines the interconnected events that led to the rise of the Khalistan movement, Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the anti-Sikh violence unleashed thereafter. With a timeline that begins seven years before 1984 and extends to a decade later, the book strives to answer crucial questions that linger even today. The narrative moves from Punjab to Canada, the US, Europe and Delhi, looking to sift the truth from political obfuscations and opportunism., while examining the role that the ruling party allegedly played, and the heartrending violence that devoured thousands of innocent lives in its aftermath.