Bostan Flight AI-420 from India to Great Britain explodes in the early hours of the morning. Saladin Chamcha, an Indian Muslim voice actor, and Gibreel Farishta, an Indian Muslim film star, are thrown from the exploding plane. As they fall toward the ground, Gibreel begins to sing. His singing annoys Saladin, who is frustrated at Gibreel's "refusal to fall in plain fashion" (4). The two men begin to transform as they plummet through the air. Saladin begins to sing as well and, briefly, he and Gibreel seem locked in a strange singing battle. They hold each other tightly as they fall. To the side, Gibreel spots a dead woman with whom he once had a romantic relationship. Her name is Rekha Merchant, and she rides on a magic carpet beside the falling men. Gibreel and Rekha argue. She is still angry at Gibreel for abandoning her, calling him a "piece of pig excrement" (5). She curses him to hell and then her words fade into "the repeated name Al-Lat" (6).

The men continue to fall through the shapeshifting clouds and, as they tumble, Saladin begins to feel a sense of immortality.