Tariq is determined to fulfill his grandfather’s wish for him to go to Oxford, no matter how India’s upcoming partition threatens to bar the way. Hoping to use his new job as a British cartographer’s assistant as a path to England, Tariq meets Margaret, the unhappy daughter of the cartographer, and Anupreet, another member of the household staff. The three teenagers, though incredibly different, experience the political and social tension that trumps all other concerns.