In Ceylon, colonized by the British, an Indian Tamil woman describes the events that follow the departure of the British from the plantations. She imagines the possibility of a new world as the Indians reclaim their land. However, the reality that follows shows how the British values persist and are upheld by ethnic differences between the Indians on the plantation.

During World War II in West Bengal, a Bengali grandmother and doll-crafter faces the atrocities of British colonial rule. Upon delivering a magical doll to the Governor of Kolkata, the grandmother seeks justice for these colonial cruelties and the death of her grandson.

As Tamil people on the hillside celebrate the eve of their independence, a young Indian boy plots his escape to the city.

In 1919, a young Indian woman and a handsome Irish soldier in a British uniform bond over their mutual love for poetry and their desire to be freed from British imperialism.

An Indian college student returns home for Diwali for the first time in two years. Upon his return, he must decide if he will please his dying father by getting married, or tell his family about his dreams to study in America.

An Indian-American immigrant recalls his life's journey, which goes from Calcutta to Boston. In Boston he rented a room from a strange old woman and fell in love with his wife long after their arranged marriage.

A reserved and recently-divorced man joins a pilgrimage to meet a mysterious and all-powerful guru, and, through a harrowing crisis, finds his skepticism replaced with a newly-opened mind.

Set in Canada in the 1980s, an Indian-Canadian immigrant woman travels abroad, attempting to learn how to grieve her husband and sons after a terrorist attack on the plane kills them on their way to India.

After a tragedy in Dehli India kills a significant portion of India's best writers, the lesser writers who are left behind decide to put together an anthology to keep Indian literature alive by their own terms.

During an unwanted conversation with a stranger on a train in India, a woman reflects on her loveless marriage to her husband — born of financial necessity — and her abandoned dream to attend college in America.