This is a story about two very different and apparently separate lives. Phil Traynor is having to cope with all the vicissitudes of old age, although he remains rambunctious and as full of bounce and brio as ever, even as deafness and dementia come closer. Sunita Bhagan's life seems to be just beginning. Lively, in love, loyal to a culture with which part of her no longer identifies, she has decisions to make. Or has she? Or was everything determined long ago? How these two people touched each other, so very briefly, is the story of two lives — and of the Law of Unintended Consequences.