Sai is an orphan living in mountainous Kalimpong with her maternal grandfather Jemubhai Patel, the cook, and a dog named Mutt.

Biju, the other character, is an illegal alien residing in the United States, trying to make a new life for himself, and contrasts this with the experiences of Sai, an anglicised Indian girl living with her grandfather in India.

Desai writes of rejection and yet awe of the English way of life, opportunities to gain money in America, and the squalor of living in India.

The retired judge Jemubhai Patel is a man disgusted by Indian ways and customs—so much so, that he eats chapatis (a moist South Asian flatbread) with knife and fork.

[6] Pankaj Mishra writing in The New York Times claimed Desai "manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence.