Two englishwomen, the young Miss
Adela Quested and the elderly Mrs. Moore, travel to India. Adela
expects to become engaged to Mrs. Moore’s son, Ronny, a British magistrate
in the Indian city of Chandrapore. Adela and Mrs. Moore each hope
to see the real India during their visit, rather than cultural institutions
imported by the British.
At the same time, Aziz, a young Muslim doctor in India,
is increasingly frustrated by the poor treatment he receives at
the hands of the English. Aziz is especially annoyed with Major
Callendar, the civil surgeon, who has a tendency to summon Aziz
for frivolous reasons in the middle of dinner. Aziz and two of his
educated friends, Hamidullah and Mahmoud Ali, hold a lively conversation about
whether or not an Indian can be friends with an Englishman in India.
That night, Mrs. Moore and Aziz happen to run into each other while
exploring a local mosque, and the two become friendly. Aziz is moved
and surprised that an English person would treat him like a friend.
Mr. Turton, the collector who governs Chandrapore, hosts
a party so that Adela and Mrs. Moore may have the opportunity to meet
some of the more prominent and wealthy Indians in the city. At the
event, which proves to be rather awkward, Adela meets Cyril Fielding,
the principal of the government college in Chandrapore. Fielding,
impressed with Adela’s open friendliness to the Indians, invites
her and Mrs. Moore to tea with him and the Hindu professor Godbole.
At Adela’s request, Fielding invites Aziz to tea as well.
At the tea, Aziz and Fielding immediately become friendly,
and the afternoon is overwhelmingly pleasant until Ronny Heaslop arrives
and rudely interrupts the party. Later that evening, Adela tells
Ronny that she has decided not to marry him. But that night, the
two are in a car accident together, and the excitement of the event
causes Adela to change her mind about the marriage.
Not long afterward, Aziz organizes an expedition to the
nearby Marabar Caves for those who attended Fielding’s tea. Fielding
and Professor Godbole miss the train to Marabar, so Aziz continues
on alone with the two ladies, Adela and Mrs. Moore. Inside one of
the caves, Mrs. Moore is unnerved by the enclosed space, which is crowded
with Aziz’s retinue, and by the uncanny echo that seems to translate
every sound she makes into the noise “boum.”
Aziz, Adela, and a guide go on to the higher caves while
Mrs. Moore waits below. Adela, suddenly realizing that she does
not love Ronny, asks Aziz whether he has more than one wife—a question
he considers offensive. Aziz storms off into a cave, and when he returns,
Adela is gone. Aziz scolds the guide for losing Adela, and the guide
runs away. Aziz finds Adela’s broken field‑glasses and heads down
the hill. Back at the picnic site, Aziz finds Fielding waiting for
him. Aziz is unconcerned to learn that Adela has hastily taken a
car back to Chandrapore, as he is overjoyed to see Fielding. Back
in Chandrapore, however, Aziz is unexpectedly arrested. He is charged
with attempting to rape Adela Quested while she was in the caves,
a charge based on a claim Adela herself has made.
Fielding, believing Aziz to be innocent, angers all of
British India by joining the Indians in Aziz’s defense. In the weeks
before the trial, the racial tensions between the Indians and the
English flare up considerably. Mrs. Moore is distracted and miserable
because of her memory of the echo in the cave and because of her
impatience with the upcoming trial. Adela is emotional and ill;
she too seems to suffer from an echo in her mind. Ronny is fed up
with Mrs. Moore’s lack of support for Adela, and it is agreed that
Mrs. Moore will return to England earlier than planned. Mrs. Moore
dies on the voyage back to England, but not before she realizes
that there is no “real India”—but rather a complex multitude of
different Indias.
At Aziz’s trial, Adela, under oath, is questioned about
what happened in the caves. Shockingly, she declares that she has
made a mistake: Aziz is not the person or thing that attacked her
in the cave. Aziz is set free, and Fielding escorts Adela to the
Government College, where she spends the next several weeks. Fielding
begins to respect Adela, recognizing her bravery in standing against
her peers to pronounce Aziz innocent. Ronny breaks off his engagement
to Adela, and she returns to England.
Aziz, however, is angry that Fielding would befriend Adela
after she nearly ruined Aziz’s life, and the friendship between
the two men suffers as a consequence. Then Fielding sails for a
visit to England. Aziz declares that he is done with the English
and that he intends to move to a place where he will not have to
encounter them.
Two years later, Aziz has become the chief doctor to the
Rajah of Mau, a Hindu region several hundred miles from Chandrapore.
He has heard that Fielding married Adela shortly after returning
to England. Aziz now virulently hates all English people. One day, walking
through an old temple with his three children, he encounters Fielding
and his brother‑in‑law. Aziz is surprised to learn that the brother-in-law’s
name is Ralph Moore; it turns out that Fielding married not Adela
Quested, but Stella Moore, Mrs. Moore’s daughter from her second
marriage.
Aziz befriends Ralph. After he accidentally runs his rowboat
into Fielding’s, Aziz renews his friendship with Fielding as well.
The two men go for a final ride together before Fielding leaves,
during which Aziz tells Fielding that once the English are out of
India, the two will be able to be friends. Fielding asks why they
cannot be friends now, when they both want to be, but the sky and
the earth seem to say “No, not yet. . . . No, not there.”
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