In 1991, Monisha Rajesh’s family moved from Sheffield to Madras hoping to make India their home. Two years later, fed up with soap-eating rats, severed human heads and the creepy colonel across the street, they returned to England with a bitter taste in their mouths. Two decades later, she turns to a map of the Indian Railway and takes a page from Jules Verne’s classic tale. She embarks on an adventurous journey through India on 80 trains, covering 40,000 km, the circumference of the earth. She hopes that 80 train journeys across India will lift the veil on a land that has become alien to her.

Along the way, Monisha discovers that India’s railways, with luxury trains, toy trains, Mumbai’s infamous commuter trains, and even a hospital on wheels, have many stories to tell, not to mention a colorful cast of characters.