It is late spring 1993. Rahel Ipe, now in her early thirties, flies home to Ayemenem, along the southwestern coast of India, to reunite with her twin, Estha. It has been nearly 25 years since the two last saw each other. Only Rahel’s ancient great-aunt, known as Baby Kochamma, a corpulent old woman who spends most of her days watching television, still lives in the family’s home.

The narrative shifts to 1969, to the funeral of Sophie Mol, Rahel’s eight-year-old British cousin who came to visit just before Christmas with her mother, Margaret, the ex-wife of Rahel’s uncle Chacko. Only seven at the time, Rahel believes that her cousin is not actually dead: “Inside the earth Sophie Mol screamed, and shredded satin with her teeth” (9). After the service, Rahel’s mother, Ammu, takes the twins to a police station to tell the police a terrible mistake has been made, but the police turn her away. She is inconsolable, and says cryptically, “He’s dead […] I’ve killed him” (10). Two weeks later, Estha is sent away to live with his father, Baba, in faraway Calcutta. He grows up distant and isolated, seldom talking to anyone.