Abandoned by his fellow travelers on a tiger-ridden shore in eastern Bengal, the narrator stumbles across a strange, beautiful woman, Kapalkundala. But she has been enslaved by a priest who plans to sacrifice them both in an esoteric rite. The only way for Kapalkundala and the narrator to escape is by marrying each other and traveling on to town in disguise. As soon as they reach the road, however, they encounter a second woman laden with jewels and as beguiling, to the narrator, as the first. Apparently a Muslim aristocrat from the court of Emperor Akbar, she appears to know more about the narrator than she should.