[1][2] The novella opens one late afternoon in a remote village named Radhaganj in the Bengal Presidency.
The two women strike up a conversation, through which the thirty-year-old woman's name is revealed to be Kanakmayee, shortened to Kanak.
After some persuasion, Kanak convinces the eighteen-year-old woman to accompany her to fetch water from the nearby river.
Mathur was talking to Madhav about his recent arrival in Radhaganj after leaving Calcutta, when they both look out of their window and see Kanak and the eighteen-year-old married woman returning home.
In a flashback, we get to see the rise of a Bengali zamindar family, when a young cook named Bangshibadan Ghose became the subject of attention of the woman who was handling the zamindari estate.
Due to Ramkanta's wish, Mathur never got proper English education but was successfully taught how to manage his estate.
Madhav later directly talks to Rajmohan and asks him to work as a supervisor to his estate, promising that his family will be provided with a house in Radhaganj.
He later accepts the proposal, with utmost reluctance and moves to Radhaganj with Matangini, where he's staying at the house made for him, under Madhav's supervision.
She gets up to open the window, when she inadvertently eavesdrops on a conversation between 2 men taking place right outside her room, in the garden.
Soon, the dacoits are scared off when Madhav's guards howl at the top of their voices, thus averting a direct conflict.
In the ensuing storm, Matangini hurriedly returns home, where she's confronted by the infuriated Rajmohan, who has discovered her absence.
Help unexpectedly arrives in the form of Suki's mother, who offers to shelter Matangini in her relatives' house.
The 20-year-old Champak, Mathur's younger wife, however dislikes Matangini's presence in the house and is afraid of losing her husband's affection.
The Sardar and Bhiku are inside the hovel, discussing about their next plan of stealing Ramgopal's will from Madhav's lawyer.
The Sardar then asks Rajmohan to abandon his family, take Matangini with him and to join them as a fellow dacoit.
Madhav soon gets up and stands on the balcony, unable to take his mind off of these thoughts, when he suddenly notices something weird in his garden.
Arming himself with a small, silver-handled sword, Madhav ventures outside to see the oddity, when he hears a wild shriek, after which he's attacked and subsequently kidnapped by 2 physically powerful men.
When Tara is about to ask for a promise, they both hear a screech-owl's shriek which causes Mathur to rush out of the room.
Madhav, entirely free now, also proceeds to escape, only to stumble upon a figure revealed to be Tara, who happens to his childhood best friend.
Back in the present, Tara reveals that, due to her suspicion, she arrived in the godown (the place where they're standing now) and tried to get in, only to be scared when the Sardar and Bhiku escaped from there.
They both climb the stairs which is deep inside the house, find another door and open it, after similar failed attempts.
Seizing this opportunity, Suki's mother tricked Matangini into following her to the dark chamber (from where she has just been retrieved) and trapping her there.
After returning to his room, Mathur plans to bribe the police, how to force Bhiku to retract his confession and starts thinking on how to deal with the newly posted Magistrate, an Irishman, when a law-officer arrives to meet him.
The law-officer reveals that Bhiku's confession was also heard by the Irish Magistrate and that they're preparing to arrest Mathur.
The story now comes to an abrupt conclusion, with the ensuing events revealed: the Sardar successfully fled from Radhaganj.