Summary

There is something comical and pathetic about Percy, an awkward young man of 28, living alone with his aged mother in an old house tucked away in the Parsi colony in Bombay -- a very middle-class setting. Though Banubai, Percy's mother, utterly dominates Percy's life, she does so with love and kindness. Percy holds a clerical position in a small Unani pharmacy, famous for its sexual restoratives. It is only at his place of work, where he wields some power, that Percy displays a measure of authority and self-assurance. One day, Percy discovers a fraud in the office accounts, as a consequence of which one of the junior employees is sacked. This event has far-reaching consequences in the lives of Percy and Banubai. Percy's peace is soon to be shattered.