Deep in the holy streets of the city of Varanasi, India, upon the sacred land where one of the five heads of Brahma rests unseen, sleeps the prostitute Anaya, the one who was born to a different name in the poorest of Nepalese villages, her true name remembered only by her mother and known only to her friend Shefali, forgotten even by her malik, the brothel boss she has served as master for nine and more years.

She is the last of the seven daughters of Baburam, a goatherder from the...