When a life of luxury and ease suddenly crashes for Maharshi Patel, an Indian-American Economics student at Duke University and son of a nationally regarded oncologist, the wealthy adolescent descends into dark cycles of self-destruction that culminate in attempted suicide. In his darkest hour he seeks the help of Bhogi, his grandfather in India, and through his life story, one that includes the struggles of orphan hood, stark poverty, droughts, alcoholic sons and forced marriages, Maharshi realizes the many mistakes he made and the triviality of his fatalism, and how to go about setting his life on track again.