New to Cedar Falls, Iowa, twenty-nine-year old Maya Sanyal drinks bourbon with Fran, who recently helped her move into an apartment. After they briefly discuss Fran’s failed relationship, Fran asks Maya if Rab Chatterji, a physics professor, has called her. Maya replies that Indian men are wife beaters, which is why she chose to marry an American—although they are now divorced. As Fran leaves, Maya notices her neighbor Ted Suminski watching them and looking lonely. Two days later, Dr. Chatterji invites Maya to tea, and she accepts. He brings her to his home, where she meets his wife, drinks tea, and eats snacks with them. They tell Maya about their nephew upstairs, a graduate student who allegedly got off track with his schooling after falling in love with a Black Muslim woman from Ghana. They do not approve of this at all. Dr. Chatterji then drives Maya back home, tells her how lonely marriage is, and inappropriately reveals his attraction to her. Later, Maya looks through an Indian newspaper and finds her dream man on a listing; he is looking for a wife. The two go on a date, and Maya is swept away by his charm and smooth talking. When Maya returns home, Ted Suminski tells her that he has left a note on her door from her landlord, and the note asks her to move out of the apartment due to “personal reasons, namely remarriage.” Maya moves again within two months, and the man she had gone on a date with calls the new apartment. He tells Maya he had to attend to a problem and alludes to them seeing each other again in the near future.