The tale begins in the final days of the British Raj in India. A cohort of engineering students graduate a few months before Independence. Satyapriya and Naren are among the graduate engineers. The principality of Bhawanigarh is run by a cruel and dissolute man, Vikram Singh who knows his days of absolute power are numbered. Satyapriya Acharya finds employment in Bhawanigarh, meets and marries Ranjana under peculiar circumstances. This creates huge issues in his family, in particular his grandfather who raised him. Orthodoxy of the teacher clan of the Acharyas precludes admission of Ranjana into the household. Satyapriya is the epitome of integrity, refuses to utter any untruth as a consequence of which he and his family face difficulties. It takes a death in the family to bring a reinterpretation of tradition and relationships.