General Harun-ur-Rashid, deposed, has to win the next election. His philosopher-advisor, Zafar, devises the strategy of making a movie about the last Nawab of Bengal, and how he was overthrown by the British. He hopes the audience will draw a connection between the two leaders' shared fate. Meanwhile, the beautiful Keshwar is selected to play the role of the Nawab's spy.

‎“So I suppose I am really cut out for Aleya’s role.” A cynical smile played at the ‎corner of her mouth.‎
‎“Aleya was kidnapped by the Portuguese, and raped. Her class refused to accept ‎her. She became an outcast, déclassée, a notch-girl - and a spy. Her profession and her ‎fatal beauty gained her intimacy with foreigners and natives alike, and to their secrets. ‎Her redemption was the Nawab, to whom she reported every morning.”‎
Neither of us spoke for a while. The summer light began to fail, and through the ‎twilight floated the muezzin’s call.‎
‎“What does her name mean?”‎
‎“Will-o’-the-wisp, ignis fatuus. She’s the foolish fire the audience must follow as ‎she follows the last Nawab to his ruin. I want to show the Nawab as suffering from a ‎character defect, a fatal flaw - trust. He trusted the English.... ‎