Set in a village in the south-western Indian province of Kerala, the novel opens with the arrival of Rahel to her home at Ayenemen to meet Esthappen. It centres about the life of the fraternal twins, Rahel and her brother Esthappen, their mother Ammu and other members of the family.
The work is lyrical and poetic, uses unusual imagery and metaphors and appeals equally to the intellect as well as the sentiments of the reader. We find some of the singular figurative expressions as in the line : The old house on the hill wore its steep, gabed roof pulled over its ears like a low hat. Or when the river's decription is given as Once it had the power to evoke fear. To change lives. But now its teeth were drawn, its spirit spent. It was just a slow sludging green ribbon lawn that furried fetid garbage to the sea.
It is an intricate writing that explores the depths of human nature, their passions, yearnings, quarrels with fate and the acceptance of inevitability.
