Mr. Kapasi, a middle-aged Indian man who works as a tour guide and as an interpreter for a doctor, has been hired to take the Das family to the Sun Temple at Konarak. The family includes a daughter, Tina, and two sons, Ronny and Bobby, and Mr. Kapasi is struck by how American they are despite their Indian heritage. As the family waits at a tea stall and the boys take interest in a goat, Mr. Kapasi chats with Mr. Das, learning that he was born in America and is a middle school teacher.

Everyone gets in the car, and they start the long drive to the Sun Temple. Mr. Kapasi notices the ways the children misbehave and the parents are impolite or uncaring with each other. The boys see some monkeys, and despite their relative ubiquity in the area, Mr. Das instructs Mr. Kapasi to stop so they can take a photo. They stop again soon after so Mr. Das can take a photo of a barefoot man, then the conversation turns to Mr. Kapasi’s job as an interpreter for a doctor. The doctor does not speak Gujarati, which is part of Mr. Kapasi’s heritage. Mrs. Das finds his job romantic, and she takes an interest in him, concluding that the patients are as dependent on him as the doctor.