Elderly Nanda Kaul lives in a cottage called Carignano in the foothills of northern India with no one but her cook, Ram Lal, for company. She came here after her children were grown and her husband, the Vice-Chancellor of an Indian university, died. She cherishes the solitude and isolation of her widowhood—until her family sends her great-granddaughter Raka to Carignano to recuperate from a bout of typhoid.
Raka is a quiet, withdrawn child who prefers solitude. She rarely speaks to Nanda Kaul, and she spends most of her time exploring the countryside, especially the ravine that runs below the ridge. It is a dangerous place, full of trash, potentially rabid jackals, and even—according to Ram Lal—evil spirits. The one time Nanda Kaul insists on walking with Raka to nearby Monkey Point, Raka makes no secret of her displeasure over the intrusion. Nanda Kaul, in turn, resents Raka’s independence. To try to tempt the child into friendship, Nanda Kaul starts telling her fabulous tales about her childhood.
Over the summer, Raka sneaks onto the grounds of the nearby Kasauli Club on the night of their summer party. The masquerade ball, with its costumed and erratic revelers, scares her because it reminds her of times when her father came home drunk and heaped abuse on her mother, Tara. Not long afterward, she sees her first wildfire burning on some distant hills. Wildfires are common in the area during the hot, dry summers.
Then, Nanda Kaul’s childhood friend Ila Das comes to tea at Carignano. Nanda Kaul and Ila Das grew up together as the privileged daughters of upper-class families. But Ila Das’s brothers squandered the family’s fortune, leaving her and her sister Rima destitute. Nanda Kaul twice rescued her, first by getting the Vice-Chancellor to offer her a job at the college and then (after the Vice-Chancellor’s death and Ila Das’s resignation) by helping her to get a job as a government welfare worker. Now she makes a meager living trying to encourage rural villagers to turn from outdated practices like child marriage and folk medicine and to embrace modern medicine and progressive social mores. She struggles to survive on her paltry salary.
At tea with Nanda Kaul one day, Ila Das reminisces about the good old days. But the charmed mood breaks when she mentions Miss David, the Vice-Chancellor’s long-term mistress. Nanda Kaul makes it clear that the tea is over and it is time for Ila Das to leave. Although they both know that she needs help, Ila Das cannot bring herself to ask for it, and Nanda Kaul cannot bring herself to offer it.
As Ila Das sets out for her home deep in the valley, Raka steals a box of matches from the kitchen and sneaks into the ravine. Ila Das stops by the Kasauli bazaar, even though she’s too poor to afford anything. Before she reaches the safety of her hut, a villager named Preet Singh, enraged by her attempt to interfere in the marriage of his seven-year-old daughter, attacks her. He strangles and rapes her and leaves her body by the side of the road.
The police call Nanda Kaul at Carignano and ask her to come identify Ila Das’s body. As she struggles to comprehend the news, Raka knocks on the windowpane, summoning her great-grandmother to witness the wildfire she has started in the ravine.
