The Indian Wife

Karina grows up in the mist covered mountains of northern India. She’s a free spirit, unbreakable, bold, but all too soon, she is married off to Vijay, who has nothing but contempt for his bride. Her job is clear: make an heir and take care of Vijay’s elderly mother. She fails, and is punished for it. Her only way out is to show her community just how bad it is, and fire is the most drastic tool at her disposal. She sets herself on fire. Months later, she is swept up into a refugee camp in Australia, only to be assigned as a housekeeper to the recluse farmer Robin. They have much in common: their spirituality, their understanding of all things that grow, their love for building and making better the land they live on. Disaster strikes, when she learns that her two young daughters have been sent away from their safe mountain village to live in the poverty stricken and dirty city of Bihar, with their father - and his mistress, Tracy. With the help of Robin’s daughter Sam, hope is almost in their grasp… but Karina’s application for asylum fails. She returns to India, with a singular mission: To rescue her children and end her marriage once and for all. Robin follows her, but is left to trace her footsteps as she takes agency over her life, that of her daughters, and even manages to influence Tracy to take action. Everyone returns to the mountain village, where a final verdict must be spoken on the question of how far a man should be allowed to go before punishment is due. Robin and Tracy may want to help, but this is something India must do in the Indian way. And India always finds a way. Justice is served. Karina is allowed to live in peace and dignity, in her misty mountain village.