On the third of May, twenty-two lakh people sat the same examination. Nine days later it was cancelled. A year on, not one of them can find out what they scored. India's Public Examinations Act can send a paper-leak syndicate to prison for ten years — and contains no duty to keep the answer sheet. Since July 2024 the evidence law has required the cryptographic hash of every electronic record a prosecutor relies on, a fingerprint that cannot be computed for a file that no longer exists. This book follows one family through the year that followed a cancelled examination, and then sets out exactly what the law would have to say for it never to happen again — ending with a complete draft amending Bill of nine clauses, not one of which raises a sentence. Composite narrative nonfiction: the events, statutes and judgments are real and sourced; the characters are invented composites.