An elderly bureaucrat escapes the world to run a guest house on the banks of India's holiest river, the Narmada, only to find he has made the wrong choice. Too many lives converge here. Among those who disturb his tranquility are a privileged young executive bewitched by a mysterious lover; a novice Jain monk who has abandoned opulence for poverty; a heartbroken woman with a golden voice; an ascetic and the child he has saved from prostitution. Through their stories A River Sutra explores the fragile longings of the human heart and the sacred power of the river.