Time passes by in a languid manner across the 60-odd pages of The Mystery of The Missing Crown: A Goa Story (Good Earth), a new book for children. The story is set in Rachol, a laidback village next to a river, where a day can seem like an entire month sometimes. The locals there are God-fearing and the church is the fulcrum of their social lives. But one day, a young boy makes a terrible error of judgment and the plot revolves around how — after spending 50 years in Portugal to escape the ignominy — he returns to atone for his mistake.