In 1940s Calcutta, the young and lovely Yasmine Khan is the doyenne of the nightclub scene. When the US sets up a large army base in her city to fight the Japanese in Burma, Yasmine spots an opportunity—her Bombay Duck will be Calcutta’s answer to the wartime bars of London and Paris.

The nightclub is where Yasmine builds a family of singers, dancers, waifs and strays. Every night, the smoke-filled club swarms with soldiers eager to watch her girls dance and sing—particularly her childhood friend, the utterly gorgeous Patience.

The club is also where Yasmine meets the American soldier Lt Edward Lafaver. And for all her cynicism, she finds herself falling helplessly for a man who is married, a man she is sure will never choose her over his wife.

Outside, India swelters, the British Raj is flailing, and the city lives in fear of Japanese bombardment every night. An attack, and a betrayal, test Yasmine’s strength and sense of control, as it does her relationship with Edward.

Can a friendship heal after trust is broken? Can love survive the realities of race and social pressures?

In luminous, incisive prose, Ahmed examines the inequities wrought by racism and colonialism. Dust Under Her Feet is a wartime tale like no other.