The book is set in India during a period of intense urban development and is the chronicle of the marriage between Rukmani, youngest daughter of a village headman, and Nathan, a tenant farmer.

The story is told in the first person by Rukmani, beginning from her arranged marriage to Nathan at the age of 12 to his death many years later.

When a large tannery is built in the neighboring village, it begins insidiously destroying their lives.

As the tannery grows larger and more prosperous, Rukmani and Nathan struggle to feed their children and to pay the rent on the land that gives them life.

Although matters continue to worsen, they quietly resign themselves to ever-increasing hardships—flood, famine, even death—and cling to their hopes for a better future.

The educated daughter of a village headman fallen on hard times, she is married at the age of 12 to Nathan, a tenant farmer.

Troubled that she cannot produce a son for Nathan, Rukmani visits her ill mother and there meets Kenny, a foreign doctor.

They help the family a great deal with their wages but are eventually dismissed for being ringleaders in a labor strike.

The year they arrange a good marriage for Ira, monsoon rains destroy their crops.

Again Rukmani turns to Kenny without her husband's knowledge, this time to help Ira conceive.

Caring for Kuti lifts Ira out of her depression and despair until the crops fail from drought and the family once again goes hungry.

Kenny returns from one of his long absences with money raised to build a hospital in the village.

A leprous street urchin named Puli helps them find the home of Kenny's doctor friend.

They learn that Murugan has not worked there for the past two years and that he left the position for better wages at the Collector's house.

Demonstrating hope and compassion, Ira hastens to prepare a meal for Puli, and Selvam promises his mother they will manage.