The daughters are adults, trying to live their own lives, still struggling with their parents' expectations and disappointments. None has married an Indian. Independent Kiran, a family doctor, has divorced her American rock musician husband and come home to visit her mother and estranged father and to tell them that, at 32, she's ready for a "semi-arranged" marriage. Preity is happily married, the mother of two, a successful consultant, yet she can't quite forget a Muslim boyfriend she had in college, and she can't forgive her parents for disapproving of him. Rani is a critically acclaimed artist, married to a man who supports her in every way. But her parents still fear she'll attempt suicide, as she tried at 15. The mothers have their own stories, very different than their daughters' and in many ways more compelling. Their lives in India, their struggles to adjust to America are inherently dramatic. The book is an interesting account of cultural change. It's more than Indian-American chick-lit, although it's that, too, with a wedding in the last chapter and lots of recipes interspersed in the narrative.
