Vibrant Chand is a young bride leaving her home in Ludhiana, Punjab, India, for Brampton, Ontario, Canada, where her husband Rocky and his very traditional family await her arrival.

Chand approaches her new life and land with equanimity and grace, and at times the wide-eyed optimism of hope—her first snowfall is a tiny miracle of beauty, and the roar of Niagara Falls creates the excitement of new beginnings.

But soon optimism turns to isolation as the family she has inherited struggles beneath the weight of unspoken words, their collective frustration becoming palpable.

Maji, his controlling mother, won't let him go; Papaji, is a sweet but ineffectual father; Aman, his sister, who feels the embarrassment of living in the same house with her unemployed husband Baldev, their teenaged son Jabir and younger daughter, Lovleen.

Hope comes in the form of Rosa, a tough and savvy Jamaican woman who works alongside Chand in a factory where immigrant women from all over the world clean and press dirty hotel laundry.

Chand's attempts with the magic root lead to surreal incidents and her life gradually begins to mirror an Indian fable involving a King Cobra.

The film was primarily shot in Toronto and Brampton,[3] Canada, with additional location shooting in Punjab, India, where it was completed.

[10] Wendy Mitchell of Screen Daily noted, Zinta ... poignantly plays against the ‘cool-chick’ persona for which she is renowned on the Bollywood circuit.

[14] In India the film generated little notice or discussion and received mostly negative reviews upon release, though Preity Zinta was universally praised for her portrayal, which several critics considered her best.