Kiran is a gifted but self-absorbed college professor who grew up on ritzy Marine Drive in Mumbi. Now working at a leading California university as a professional philosopher, he lives in a sham of a marriage to Lisa, an American, but this comes to an abrupt end on a visit home to India when he dies in a plane crash. As Kiran watches annihilation gallop toward him, and then death - suddenly he discovers he's still very much alive-more alive than ever. But now he must face his karma.... He relives the events of his selfish life not as he experienced them, but as his victims did-his students, his fellow workers, above all the women who loved him. Eventually he seeks out Shalini, who committed suicide after he rejected her in favor of her rival, Lisa. Kiran, facing heavy odds, is assigned the task of rescuing Shalini from her self-made hell in the Shadowlands. Will he succeed - and if he does, what then? He cannot stay where he is. He must move ahead into diviner worlds, or "repeat the grade." ... And what about Shalini? Where will her passion for Kiran take her next?