Akbar and Rukhsana are secret teenage lovers in the historic city of Udaipur. But they belong to a strictly orthodox Shia Muslim community in which female circumcision and widow isolation are the norms, and the head priest is like God, dictating every facet of people's lives. While Akbar belongs to a liberal, "Radical" reformist faction, Rukhsana's father is a fanatical follower of the clergy, obedient to its every whim and dictate. Rukhsana is married off to a devout follower and goes to live with him in Boston, as a bored and frustrated wife and mother. Akbar marries and lives in Mumbai as an editor of a magazine. Twenty years later they meet.