Summary

The book begins with the narrator, Rukmani, as an old woman briefly describing her current life before launching into her story. Married at the age of twelve, she was the youngest of four sisters. While her first two sisters had large weddings to which the entire village and all the relatives came, and they took with them large dowries and many jewels, her third sister Thangam and herself had very small weddings and small dowries. When it came time for her to marry, many whispered that the marriage was beneath her, as her family had almost nothing left to give her for a dowry. Not but a child, a fearful Rukmani leaves her mother and father to go live with her new husband in a world unknown to her.

Traveling six hours by bullock cart, Rukmani leaves the comforts of her once prosperous father’s...