Anita is a romantic and an idealist at heart, but unfortunately her marriage and love life are arranged by her parents. She is destined to live with a man who settles for the woman his mother has selected. All her life, Anita's dreams are thwarted, first by her alcoholic father and then by her inability to continue her formal education. It is as if Anita lets life happen to her, in contrast to her willful sister who makes her own decisions. Anita cannot understand why she cannot act with the same forcefulness.

The story is told from the first person narrative perspective as Anita relates her story in memory and in the present day. Amazingly, there is little change in her relationship with Rajinder. She feels the same sense of reserve thirty years into the marriage as she did at the onset. At the end...