Narayan's 14th novel to be set in the imaginary town of Malgudi is the tale of Nagaraj, a contentedly aimless man whose only "mission" in life is to write a great treatise on the Sanskrit scholar Narada. His comfortable existence of writing and drinking coffee and observing the world from his mother's veranda is disturbed when his nephew runs away from home to live with Nagaraj because of his father's oppressive ambitions. The outside world has forced itself upon Nagaraj and he must now recognize and even embrace it.