It is 1984, and new delhi is simmering with ethnic strife as anti-sikh riots erupt after prime minister india gandhis assassination this cataclysmic event serves as the backdrop to the day-to-day ordinariness of an immigrant bengali familys life chhobi, the elder, sensitive and intelligent, is forever trying to rein in beautiful, narcissic sonali, ma, their mother, struggles with her lonelines after being widowed in her thirties; dida is their feisty grandmother whose indomitable spirit prods the family on during times of adversity; and dadu, their grandfather, is a man perpetually homestick for his estates, irretrievably lost as borders are redrawn to form bangladesh sonny - rich, handsome and arrogent - enters sonalis life, only to jilt her sonalis thwarted love affair, and a maritime misadventure, are the catalysts that alter the predictable pattern of the bengali familys life and propels its women to find within themselves hitherto unknown strenghs - and to evolve and deal with changed circumstances the story traces the gradual erosion of old values, an acceptance of new identities and, for the grandfather, at last a sense of realization that delhi is home