Since the death of their parents in Mumbai in 2008, Nisha Malik has been the caretaker of her sister Djuna, in rural eastern North Carolina. Together with Nisha's American husband Michael, they've built a community for themselves. Then, Djuna began her first year at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where she lived off campus-next door to an angry and dangerous young man. In the aftermath of her sister's murder, Nisha learns that Djuna left behind a journal she kept for class. This journal becomes the center of a dispute between Nisha and Djuna's English professor, an Irish writer desperate for material. In the course of their meetings and negotiations, they reveal a great deal to each other about their cultures, their families and their pasts.