Set in 1950s India, Vikram Seth's epic love story is essentially the tale of Mrs. Rupa Mehra's attempts to find a 'suitable' husband for her daughter. Various potential suitors are lined up, their merits and respectability to be appraised by members of the whole family. With Lata studying English at Brahmpur University, however, there lurks the danger that she will fall in love with someone of her own choice - someone who may, in her mother's view, be entirely unsuitable. Lata's story is recounted alongside those of her friends and family, whose tangled fortunes unfold against the backdrop of India's first General Election, when a sixth of the world's population will for the first time decide its future.