In a small, dusty Indian town near the Bay of Bengal, a middle-aged man lives in his crumbling ancestral home, uncomfortably aware of the encroaching modern world. His mother is disappointed that he never became a doctor; his sister, longing for love, is the bane of local matchmakers; his only son prefers embarrassing student activism over employment; and his wife, though ever-dutiful, has become disillusioned and bitter. But the small disasters of everyday life wither when his beloved daughter - long estranged because of her marriage to a white Canadian - and her husband are killed in a car crash. Nandana, their surviving seven-year old daughter, is about to become Sripathi's reluctant ward and the wayward catalyst that forces him to come to terms with the pain of his loss.