Bijou Roy's life in Washington, D.C. is not thrilling but it is steady. When she loses her father to a long illness, she travels to India to scatter his remains in the river that runs through his native city. With the weight of her grief still fresh, she leaves a career and relationship in limbo only to be thrust into unfamiliar territory.

Never having fully understood why her parents severed their ties to India, she is drawn to Naveen, the son of her father's closest comrade. Naveen holds over Bijou intimate details of their fathers' past and their political involvements. Quickly, she is embroiled in the mysteries of love, grief, and family histories, questioning what happens next when the customs of neither an original nor an adopted culture provide comfort.

In her quest for answers, Bijou sees how each generation must wrestle--often at great risk--with the one who came before, and, perhaps above all, comes to learn how to replace sorrow with hope.