Chapter 1:
The story takes place in a village called Thul that we can find it in India. The protagonist is a girl called Lila, her family has financial problems. They had to sell their fishing boat and the buffalo. Her mother is sick and her father is a drunken man. Lila takes care of her two young sisters, the housework and her sick mother that gets weaker day after day. Lila and Hari stopped going to school for these money problems. Hari is trying to find a job to help his family. Their father was fooled a man that their dog was named after him.
Chapter 2:
The Alibagh workmen was building a boat for Biju where all people sit and watch them, even Hari goes to see them with the boys instead of fishing. Hari got offered by the Silvas to be the car cleaner but he has to go back with them to the rich city Bombay. Hari now has several options, he can got to Bombay to find work, work on Biju’s boat or the factories to be built. But Hari was smart and thought about the future, he knew that Biju’s boat will be sinking during the storms and he once talked with a man that told him that if the factory require an educated man , that he stopped going to school. He considered his three sister future, that he need lots of money. So he had no other choice, just Bombay.
Chapter 3:
The mother of the protagonist became worse than she ever been. She had high fever, Lila ordered her sisters to go to their neighbors Khanekars for help. This family was Hira-bai and three drunken brothers. They suffered after the death of their father, they have neglected their lands and abandoned agriculture. Hira-bai sent the only a magician that threw powder around the house because they say it keeps the evil spirits away. Brusquely, one of the drunken brothers yelled because he found out that their father has borrowed money from them and of Corse he did not return it but Hira-bai has ordered him to go back home.The flashback comes to an end and now hari knows about their bad day.
Chapter 4:
Hari now needs to save his family. Hari was about to ask Biju for a job on his boat but someone interrupted them and let Hari forget about it. The man made it clear that Biju’s boat isn’t that successful. He added that famers will earn money with their own way. Hari decides to take part of the protest. When Hari goes home at night, he hears crying. It was Pinto, their neighbor poisoned him as he threatened them in the previous chapter. Now they’ve lost their Pinto, because of their good-at-nothing father. Hari left the house with only the thought of running far away from this agony and anguish.
Chapter 5 & 6:
Biju’s boat was about to be launched but their was a problem, the mens went to prtotest against the factories.By then, hari was so far away from Thul, he had forgotten all about his village. He reached Rewas on a bullock cart with a man who tells him that the earth is very crowded now, and that nothing is enough for us. He wanted to find teeming with people. He found himself trembling with excitement and fear. No one from his villga was with him so he was hungry. They reach Bombay, an awfully crowded place, full of fish smells and traffic. He feels relieved at the sight of a farmer from Thul next to him. The people from Bombay make fun of him and his companions because they are from the fields and know nothing about living in the city. Hari was bemused at the buildings and shops. A man from Bombay who seemed to care for the villagers stop up and began a speech saying that all the citizens of Bombay are concerned because these factories will pollute Bombay more than it is in the meanwhile as it is only 14 Km away. The man asks them if they would prefer living in the green fields, or living a beggar’s life. This man’s name is Sayyid, he isn’t a political leader. Only five men will go to Montralaya with the petition. Hari feels deserted and friendless.
Back at home, the children babysat their mother and felt lonely without hari and pinto. They don’t know where hari is. Bella and kamal went to fetch ice for their mother and met Mina who tells them about the man who went off to Bombay, and she heard hari was one of them. When they came back, Lila after knowing, goes to the doctor, and sees the “de silvas” who own “mon repos”!
Chapter7:
Hari wondered around the Black Horse square. He was thirsty and went to a coconut seller who gave him the cheapest coconut to drink from. He tells him to give up on their mission. Hari started to feel afraid of this square after knowing from another beggar what the coconut seller does and how he is a dangerous killer. He found a beach and saw a rich family there who reminded him of the “de silvas”, he then remembered the address they gave him and actually went to it. His heart was beating with excitement and dread. He found this palace in the evening and entered the elevator who led him to the tenth floor where they lived. A man opened the house’s door, and tells him that the family had already left in the morning to Bombay and the kicks him out of the house. The watchman after seeing Hari so desperate and miserable helps him and founds him a place at his friend’s restaurant. His friend’s name is Jagu. Hari was invited Jagu to lie down at night after the customers had left. Hari finally sleeps for the first time in Bombay.
Chapter 8:
Hari gets lucky and have been offered a job by Jagu in the kitchen for a rupee a day and free meals. Hari had no else to sleep except the bench Jagu’s restaurant. An old man in the shop next to the restaurant gave him money for a postcard and to take care of the kids who’s just lost their parents. Hari wrote a letter to his mother and sisters that he got a job and he will be sending all his earnings.
Their mother was getting worse but the De Silvas was heading to Alibagh so Lila asked them if they can take her mother to the hospital and they were honored to help them. She wants to work for them because they were taking care of her mother and paying for the medical treatments. Her mother had to run some tests. She came back after three days and she found out that her mother has anemia.
Chapter 9:
Hari has trouble sleeping so Mr.Panwallah told him to go sleep in the park because its better than the restaurant. Moreover a policeman was bullying him but a gentleman defended Hari, by saying there’s dangerous guys in here so why bullying the good man and leaving the bad guys. The policeman was convinced so he became his guardian instead. The De Silvas did really help Hari’s family by paying them every month just for looking after the new man who came from Thul to study.
Chapter 10:
Hari was still in Bombay, the old man from the watch shop next door invited him to see the monsoon begin. It is like where it rais and rains for months. Hari was getting sick so Jagu offered him to come stay at his house. When they got there him and his wife started fighting and yelling at each other. After that when Hari was working there was a man at the shop listening to a portable radio, it said that there was boats that might have been lost at sea and the men might of died. When Lila was walking home she saw men go out to sea and Biju was yelling to them to come back and warning them that they would die. After 4 days they sent a search party out there and they found the boats and 3 fishermen had drowned and the rest survived.
