At a party near Stanford University’s campus in 1917, Cora Trent, a graduate student raised in the American West, meets Indra Mukherjee, an Indian revolutionary newly arrived in California. Indra is grieving the recent loss of a friend while Cora is seeking a new life. They spark an instant connection, and their passionate romance deepens as they attend protests alongside anticolonial dissidents and socialize with eccentric thinkers in Berkeley and Palo Alto. All the while, Indra awaits orders from a mysterious German spymaster. Cora and Indra quickly marry and are forced to flee to New York City with the hope that they can avoid the attention of the British and American authorities. Cora and Indra must reckon with ambitions that challenge the foundations of their hasty marriage --- and their freedom.

On a small Pacific island, a brother and sister tune in to a breaking news radio bulletin. It is 1985, and an Indian grocer has just been attacked by nativists aligned with the recent military coup. Bhumi hears this news from her locked-down dorm room in the capital city. But when her friendship with the daughter of a prominent government official becomes a liability, she must flee her unstable home for California. Jaipal is stuck working in the family store, avoiding their father’s wrath, with nothing but his hidden desires to distract him. Desperate for money and connection, he seizes a sudden opportunity to take his life into his own hands for the first time. But his decision may leave him vulnerable to the island’s escalating volatility.