With an unhappy relationship behind her and feeling a need to connect more meaningfully with her heritage, thirty-something artist Sharmila Sen has chosen to follow the path of her mother and generations of Indian women by marrying a man she has never met. Now, ten thousand miles from her Chicago home, she waits to catch her first glimpse of Raj Khosla, the prominent New Delhi businessman who has been selected as her husband.

But in spite of her mother's predictions, a future filled with love and happiness may not be in the cards.

When Sharmila and Raj arrive at his family home, the reception is less than warmly welcoming. And Raj disappears for long periods at a time, leaving Sharmila to fend for herself in the uneasy household run by his watchful, controlling mother. Most unsettling of all is the mystery surrounding the death of Raj's cherished first wife, a woman Sharmila can't hope to match in submissive beauty and unquestioning devotion to Indian tradition.

Deliverance arrives in the unlikely person of Prem, the Khosla family's driver, who shows Sharmila an India tourists seldom see. For Sharmila it proves an exhilarating journey into a place where serene, ageless customs coexist with the colorful chaos of modern-day life. But Prem is a "Dalit," a member of an untouchable caste, and being friends with him - and more - means defying the powerful Khoslas, her own family, and a centuries-old taboo.

It also means confronting her place in a culture that may ultimately prove too restrictive and exclusive for an independent, passionate woman like Sharmila.