Eight year old Ajay moves to the United States with his elder brother Aman, his mother, and his father, from India to Queens, New York. Two years later, on a fateful August day, Aman dives into a pool while swimming and strikes his head on the cement bottom, falling into an unpredictable coma. His mother tells the doctors and nurses that Aman had been admitted to the Bronx High School of Science for enrollment that fall, in efforts to highlight Aman's brilliance and potentially get him better treatment in Arlington, Virginia. Prior to the accident, Ajay was never one for prayer. Their family only went to the temple for holy days and birthdays. However, with Aman in the hospital, their mother creates an altar in the room that Ajay and Aman used to share, with incense and photographs of various depictions of gods. She also includes a photo of Mahatma Gandhi, explaining to Ajay that God had appeared in her dreams, taking the form of Gandhi and telling her that Aman would recover and would grow up to become a surgeon. She makes Ajay pray with her for a half hour every morning and evening. Aman does not recover in time to begin classes at Bronx Science and his mother performs increasingly complex rituals, puzzling Ajay. To him, such rituals were not so different from performing somersaults to amuse his aunt and they made God seem somehow more human to him. Ajay traces an Om, a crucifix, a Star of David, and a Superman symbol into the carpet one day while praying, drawing irritation from his mother. His mother didn't mind other religious symbols as they were also for commonly recognized gods but prayer to Superman was ridiculous to her, as if his faith made hers look foolish. Ajay offers nervously one day that he prayed for a hundred percent on a math test to which his mother asks what he would do if he had to bargain his math grade for how much longer Aman would have to stay asleep. She mentions the story of how, when sick as a little girl, her brother walked seven times around the temple and asked God to let him fail his exams just as long as she got better. Ajay counters that if he failed his math test and told her this same story, she would slap him and ask what one had to do with the other. She asks God why He gave her a son who drowned and now, a son who is a selfish fool. Ajay offers to fast, liking the idea and the drama of fasting, to which his mother refuses. Ajay thinks that prayer should appeal with humility and an open heart to some kind of greater force. He feels that the prayer his mother engages in feels sly and confused, treating God as someone to bargain with and praying as if they were trying to cast a spell. In Ajay's mind, this feels like it is possible to completely do away with the presence of God entirely. For example, Ajay's mother recently asked a relative in India to drive a nail into a holy tree and tie a saffron thread to the nail on Aman's behalf—so Ajay invents his own ritual. On his way to school each morning, Ajay passes a thick tree rooted half on the sidewalk and half on the road. He gets the idea that if he circles the tree seven times, touching the north side every other time, he would have a lucky day. He does it every morning, making sure nobody watches him in the act. One night, Ajay asks God whether he minded being prayed to only in need, to which God, in the form of Clark Kent, responds that we only think of our toe when we stub it. Clark Kent and Ajay began talking occasionally with each other shortly after Aman's drowning and now they talk most nights as Ajay tries to fall asleep. Ajay informs God that his ritual with the tree is a way of praying to him, to which God tells him that he not very partial to formalities. Ajay also asks God if he will be rich and famous, enough to help pay his parents' bills, Aman's hospital fees, and also for Aman's drowning to mean something. He feels he has responsibilities and is very excited about the potential of his future greatness. Ajay's cousin Vinod, a 22-year old computer programming student, picks up Ajay from school and drops him off at the hospital every day. He tries engaging Ajay in conversation but Ajay finds it increasingly difficult to talk to others, noticing that the only time he could talk easily was when it was with God. He rationalizes it by saying that just as when there is too much food in the mouth, it is difficult to chew, it becomes difficult to talk when there are too many thoughts in the brain. At the hospital, Ajay greets Aman as if he were still awake and hugs his mother, who asks how school was. In his music class, they sang a song about a sailor who bared his breast before jumping into sea, making the other students giggle. But Ajay couldn't even say the word "breast" out loud without blushing. He had even cried that day, thinking about how Aman's accident had made his own life confused and mysterious. When Ajay cried in school, he was usually sent outside but since it was raining, he was simply sent into the hallway this time. He knew this piece of news would upset his mother, so he doesn't tell her. Ajay's father is a bookkeeper for a department store who took the bus from Queens to Arlington most Fridays. Prior to the accident, Ajay saw his parents as a singular unit but afterwards, he realizes that they are very different people. His mother would go to the cafeteria often for coffee or cookies and on days she was especially sad, she would take her coat with her to walk around the lot outside. Aman is a scrawny fourteen year old. Immediately after the accident, there were so many wires and machines around his body that only one person at a time could stand beside him. Now there is a single waxy yellow tube attached to his abdomen to receive Isocal milk. Aman has a still and glassy expression in his face and eyes, reminding Ajay a little of the plastic bowl they had once left on the radiator overnight that drooped and sagged. Ajay hadn't gone to the pool with his brother on the day of the accident, preferring to finish a book instead. But he heard the ambulance siren and saw Aman on a stretcher with a mask over his nose and mouth. He had cried as his aunt whisked him away to take him home but was certain at the time that Aman would wake up and be fine within a few days. He had just finished reading a Spider-Man comic in which Aunt May falls into a coma and wakes up perfectly fine. Ajay had cried simply because it seemed as if the gravity of the situation had called for some tears. He wondered if that moment would mark the beginning of his future greatness. Whatever the case, from then on, Ajay found it difficult to cry in front of his family, feeling as if he were a liar if he felt tears coming on. He feels that if he truly loved his brother, he would not have thought about himself as the ambulance pulled away or dream with God about becoming famous at night. Ajay's mother would sometimes tell Ajay stories from Aman's childhood but Ajay was usually left alone to read, often hours upon end without interruption until the lines between real life and fiction blurred. He sees an interview with a rock star one evening on television who shouts at the audience over the interviewer for them to live their lives instead of watching him. Filled with a sudden desire to do something, Ajay walks outside and stands on the sidewalk. He doesn't quite know what to do outside but watches the cars and their lights as they enter and leave the hospital. Ajay understands the feeling of hopelessness one evening as he asks God if things will be better again, since Christmas was soon approaching and a new year that Aman will not have experienced will be upon them. A feeling much like fear, it clutches the stomach, places a numbness in the arms and legs, and makes the future feel more frightening than the present. Ajay feels anger at God who tells him that he cannot possibly understand why he does the things he does. God tells him he loves him but he cannot tell him the future, words that Ajay already knew. He wants God to get rid of those three minutes that Aman was on the pool floor, to which God responds that Presidents die and planes crash in far less time. A daily routine with school and hospital visits has given Ajay the reassuring sense that his life was simply in suspension and that what was happening was not real. His mother, his brother, and himself were all just waiting to make a very long-delayed bus trip and eventually all would be normal, back at his old school and Sunday afternoon trips to the Hindi movie theater. But Ajay begins to understand that the world is always real, whether you sleep or read a book, and that it erodes at you every single day. His mother, evidence of this erosion, had become severe and unforgiving. One night, in spite of a migraine, she sits and watches a movie with her sister. Afterwards, she goes, vomits, and lays on her mattress with a towel over her head and asks Ajay to massage her neck and shoulders. She cries while he does so and a frightened Ajay accusingly tells her that she shouldn't have watched television. His mother responds that she has to, as people will cry once or twice with you but if you cry a third time, people will find you boring and unpleasant to be around. Ajay doesn't want to believe this but he wonders if she has had conversations with his aunt and uncle that he does not know about. She tells Ajay that if Aman were to live long enough, Ajay would blame his unhappiness on him and take his anger out on him. Ajay suddenly hates himself, seeing himself as the complete opposite of everything he wanted to be. His father is also slowly eroded at, no longer his humorous and witty self. He takes Ajay to a bar on the way back from the hospital one day, buying a beer and cigarette for himself and propping Ajay up on a barstool. They talk about the basketball game on the television and leave. Once in the car, Ajay's dad apologizes to him, making Ajay think for the first time that something wrong had happened. His dad tells him not to tell his mother. Feeling a bit cruel, Ajay asks his father what he thinks about when he thinks of Aman to which his father thoughtfully responds that he is surprised at how strong Aman is, given that it is not easy for him to keep living. From then on, they often stopat the bar on the way back home where Ajay's dad orders his beer and cigarette and tells Ajay not to tell his mother. Ajay feels himself changing, his superstitions becoming more extreme, punching his good-luck tree until his knuckles hurt and holding his breath for extra time, praying that his unused breaths would go to Aman. That December, a place opens up in a good long-term care facility in New Jersey, letting Aman and his mother move back to New York and live with their father again. Ajay feels momentary panic at the prospect of having his old life back without Aman in it; a drastically different life. Ajay decides to use his devotion into shaming God into fixing Aman, praying every spare moment during the day that he can get. His mother would not allow him to fast but he throws away his lunch at school. As his mother prays in the morning, he makes sure she bows at least once to each of the pictures of the deities. If she did not, he would bow to them three times in turn to make up for any offense. He notices his father finishing prayers in less time than it took him to brush his teeth so he begins to pray alongside his father, knowing that his father would be too embarrassed to get up first. But Ajay finds it difficult to get into the rhythm of sung prayers or his nightly conversation with God. How is chanting and burning incense supposed to undo three minutes of an August afternoon? On Christmas Eve, Ajay's mother asks the hospital chaplain to come to Aman's room to pray with them. Ajay speaks to God that evening and asks if Aman will be better by the morning. God says no and that Ajay should have asked for Aman to get better instead of asking for an A on his math test, something that Ajay finds so ridiculous that he wakes up. He feels disappointed that he doesn't feel guilty. The next morning, Ajay and his father arrive at the hospital where Aman is still sleeping. Ajay had not expected Aman to wake up but seeing him in this manner still puts a weight on Ajay's chest. Christmas prayers are held in a large and mostly empty room. Ajay's father walks out in the middle of the service. Ajay sits in a corner of Aman's room and watches his parents. His mother reads a Hindi women's magazine while shelling peanuts and his father reads a book in preparation for the civil service exam. The day wears on and at some point, Ajay begins to cry. He doesn't cry for Aman but realizes for the first time that he cries because he finds his own life right now very difficult. His parents notice and ask what the matter is. Ajay shouts that he did not receive any Christmas presents and that he deserves something for everything he has been through. His parents ask what he wants and he has no answer prepared. He asks for pizza and candy. His father takes him home and on the way back, stops at the mall where they buy pizza from a pizzeria and buy a bag of chocolate. He holds the candy in his lap on the car ride back home and he rolls the window down. After some time, they pass the building where Aman's accident had occurred. Ajay had not gone past it since the accident happened. He wonders what had happened to the pool and thinks that the pool had probably remained as is since the fall. People must have swum in its waters all summer, not knowing that his brother lay at the concrete bottom for three minutes on an August afternoon.