Plot Overview
Rukmani, an old woman, reflects on her life. The educated daughter of a
village headman fallen on hard times, Rukmani is married at the age of twelve to
Nathan, a tenant farmer. Nathan treats her with kindness and respect as she learns
the chores her new life requires. Within a year they have a beautiful daughter, Ira,
and good rice harvests. During the next six years, Rukmani does not conceive.
Troubled that she cannot produce a son for Nathan, Rukmani visits her ill mother and
there meets Kenny, a foreign doctor. He treats her infertility without Nathan's
knowledge. In quick succession, Rukmani bears five sons. With each birth, however,
the family has a little less to eat. When a tannery is built nearby, unpleasant
changes come to village life. Rukmani's two oldest sons eventually go to work there.
They help the family a great deal with their wages but are eventually dismissed for
being ringleaders in a labor strike.
The year they arrange a good marriage for Ira, monsoon rains destroy all their
crops. Rukmani sacrifices her savings to buy food for the family. Ira's husband
returns Ira to her parents' home because she is barren. Again Rukmani turns to Kenny
without her husband's knowledge, this time to help Ira conceive. His treatments are
too late, however, since Ira's husband has taken another woman. Rukmani becomes
pregnant again and bears her last son, Kuti. Caring for Kuti lifts Ira out of her
depression and despair until the crops fail from drought and the family once again
goes hungry. They sell most of their possessions just to pay half of what they owe
the landowner for their lease. Reduced to foraging for roots and leaves, the family
begins to weaken and starve. Kenny secures a servant's position in the city for
Rukmani's third son. Rukmani's fourth son is killed stealing a calfskin from the
tannery. Kuti suffers the most from hunger, and Ira prostitutes herself to feed him.
Despite her efforts, he dies. A good rice harvest arrives too late to save Rukmani's
sons.
Kenny returns from one of his long absences with money raised to build a
hospital in the village. He offers to train Rukmani's remaining son, Selvam, as his
assistant. Some villagers speculate that Kenny is kind to Rukmani because they have
an illicit relationship. Kunthi, a neighborhood wife who became a prostitute,
spreads this rumor out of spite. When they were both young, Nathan fathered Kunthi's
two sons. Kunthi uses this as leverage over them until Rukmani learns the truth and
forgives Nathan. Now, as Nathan nears fifty, he has no sons left to work the land.
He suffers from rheumatism and debilitating fevers. Rukmani and Ira try to help, but
they are not strong enough. Ira has a baby to care for, an albino boy conceived in
prostitution but loved nonetheless. The family experiences its greatest loss when
the land agent tells Nathan and Rukmani their land has been sold to the despised
tannery. No one else will lease land to a man as old and ill as Nathan, and Rukmani
and Nathan must leave their home of thirty years to go to their son Murugan in the
city. They leave Ira and their grandchild under Selvam's care.
Their possessions reduced to the few bundles they carry, Nathan and Rukmani
try to find Murugan in the city. They rest one night at a temple, where thieves
steal their bundles and all their money. A leprous street urchin named Puli helps
them find the home of Kenny's doctor friend. They learn that Murugan has not worked
there for the past two years and that he left the position for better wages at the
Collector's house. At the Collector's, Murugan's wife informs them that Murugan has
deserted her. Her older boy, their grandson, is thin with hunger. Her starving baby
is too little to be Murugan's son. Rukmani sees that she and Nathan cannot impose
upon their daughter-in-law. They return to the temple, where food is distributed
each night to the destitute.
Rukmani and Nathan dream of home but have no means to make the trip. Rukmani
tries to get work as a letter reader but earns only enough to buy rice cakes. Puli
takes them to a stone quarry where there is better-paying work. He helps them learn
to break stones, and they come to rely on him. They entrust him with their earnings,
and, as they save, they begin to hope. One evening, Rukmani splurges on extra food
and toys for Puli and her grandson. When she returns to Nathan at the temple, she
expects him to be angry, but instead he is violently ill. During a week of monsoon
rains, Nathan continues to work in the quarry despite his fevers and chills. One
evening, after she gets paid, Rukmani begins to plan for a cart to take them home.
Hurrying to catch up with Nathan, she finds him collapsed in the mud in the street.
Kind strangers help carry him to the temple, where he dies in her arms after
reminding her of their happiness together. After his death, Rukmani rashly promises
Puli his health if he returns to the country with her, a promise Kenny and Selvam
will help her keep. She introduces Puli to Selvam and Ira as the son she and Nathan
adopted while they were away. Demonstrating both hope and compassion, Ira hastens to
prepare a meal for Puli, and Selvam promises his mother they will manage.
