Of all the family gatherings in her childhood, one stands out in Aminas memory. It is 1979, in Salem India, when a visit to her grandmothers house escalates into an explosive encounter, pitching brother against brother, mother against son. In its aftermath, Aminas father Thomas rushes his family back to their new home in America. And while at first it seems that the intercontinental flight has taken them out of harms way, his decision sets off a chain of events that will forever haunt Thomas and his wife Kamala their intellectually furious son, Akhil and the watchful young Amina. Now, twenty years later, Amina receives a phone call from her mother. Thomas has been acting strangely and Kamala needs her daughter back. Amina returns to the New Mexico of her childhood, where her mother has always filled silences with food, only to discover that getting to the truth is not as easy as going home.
