As the social fabric of life in rural India disintegrates in the late 1990s, journalist Manav Banerjee moves with his pregnant wife to the town of Orissa in the hope of a better life and the promise of a lucrative career. When speculation mounts that local Australian missionary Graham Staines is illegally proselytizing leprosy patients, Manav agrees to investigate undercover for the newspaper. What he finds is a series of revelations that are difficult to fathom.