At the heart of Ships of Sorrows is a group of young friends, men and women, Hindu and Muslim, living in Lucknow on the cusp of Indian Independence. Like the rest of the country, their lives are in turmoil. As the certanities of an old order begin fraying and the prospect of division become inevitable, they are confronted with having to make the kind of decisions that their hitherto carefree, privileged lives had not required. The author places the six friends in situations that reflect the changing context and reveal their complex relationships with each other and with their altered reality. As the partition of the country looms, and their separation from each other and from their known worlds become imminent, their known worlds becomes imminent, their cargo of sorrows gets heavier. Yet, the ship of sorrows is not a angle of sounds, images and emotions, Hyder navigates it to a harbor that promises hope and renewal.