After more than thirty years in London recently widowed Thomas Imbalil returns to India He spends his first months in uncluttered isolation in his house overlooking the Arabian Sea in a small village in Kerala But when he agrees to look after his friend's optical store he meets & befriends Rani the young assistant Before long he discovers that Rani is using the store to run an intriguing side-business He agrees to turn a blind eye but the discovery has made him restless & reminds him of the lonliness he is feeling & which lies ahead of him Rani also reveals herself as a much more complex individual than he had first imagined & while he had envisaged a quiet reacquaintance with his homeland Thomas finds himself becoming more & more entangled with the lives of those around him