The book starts by following a group of rural immigrants who traveled to Bhopal to escape the drought in their own villages and settled in the slums.

The books also chronicles the invention of American firm Union Carbide's chemical pesticide, Sevin, which used methyl isocyanate and α-naphthol.

The narration follows characters like Padmini, an Oriya girl, who was to be married the night of the disaster in the slums, and Sister Felicity, a missionary from Scotland.

[3][4][5] The book also describes other characters like a tradesman who hired tents to offer some protection against the poison cloud and the railway station warden who tried to stop a train from halting there.

The order came after a former Director General of Police of Madhya Pradesh, Swaraj Puri, filed a defamation lawsuit for allegedly carrying defamatory remarks attributed to him.