In the present, a young girl grows up hearing stories about her parents' close family friends who moved back to India seven years ago. When they move back to Massachusetts, they request to stay with her family as they search for a house, and her family agrees. However, the two families have grown apart in the past few years, and obvious class and cultural differences emerge. The girl is uncomfortable at the presence of the family but starts to nurture a crush on their son. She also begins to get closer with his mother because she lavishes positive attention on her. One snowy day, everyone feels nostalgic, and the son finally confides in her as to why they are back in Massachusetts, and why they have spent so long staying with her family: His mother has terminal breast cancer, and she wanted to live the rest of her life without anyone knowing of her condition, to escape their pity.