Set in Trinidad and Canada in the 1950s, this moving and tender love story evokes a memorable portrayal of a brave young woman's struggle between the traditional, collective Hindu society of her parents and her generation's world of individual destiny and responsibility. The village pundit warns Sastra's mother that her daughter's birth signs foretell two possible karmas: one of prosperous security if she keeps to the well-tried path of obedience to tradition, the other of mixed joy and misery if she should attempt to "fly" and follow her own desires. As Sastra finds herself faced with choosing between these two destinies, the novel explores the interaction between accidents and human responsibility, convention and change, and the problematic workings of fate.