Kamada, Tara's daughter, lives in a world of magic. A world of gremlins, fairies, an airavata-a spotless white elephant with four tusks and seven trunks-and talking magical entities shield her from a society where strange men act like they own the women walking down the street and where her mother sells her body in exchange for a life of luxury. Kamada knows she doesn't belong here. She is on a mission to escape the dirty streets of gritty Bombay and her mother's house, which feels like a prison. Only her magical friends, a parrot astrologer who tells of the future, and a neighboring family know that her dream is to leave home to study in America. As she plans her escape, Kamada's world is turned upside down when her mother reveals a secret and she must struggle to get the education she envisions.