In Rules of Desire, yearning becomes both dangerous and erotic, leading the readers into worlds where the unthinkable becomes possible. Dipika Mukherjee’s stories careen from urban Kuala Lumpur to cosmopolitan Shanghai, then small towns of India and the remote wilderness of America. Seventeen stories explore the realities of rapidly changing countries, where social mores are obscured by political and economic realities. They explore the essence of being human in a world that turns on the debts of desire.