Summary

Book Two opens with Meena’s first person narration of the morning she woke up in the hospital after her husband was burned alive. She accepted the help of Anjali, a pro bono lawyer, who offered to aid her in filing a lawsuit against the men who attacked her and her husband. She was afraid to enter the police station and sit across from a man who was socially superior but she was incensed by Rupal’s claim that she would be punished through karmic reincarnation as a worm. Meena was determined to fight against the religious and gender discrimination that fueled the attack in order to protect her unborn child from similar violence.

In Chapter 10, Smita and Mohan visit Meena at her home in the remote town, Birwad. Meena lives with her mother-in-law, Ammi, in a dirt floor shack within...