While returning from New Delhi, Sita, detective Lalli's niece and trusted sidekick, runs into former classmate Anais at the Mumbai airport. They catch up and Anais, before disappearing into the Mumbai crowd, hands over a shoe box she is carrying to a waiting woman, informing the lady that it contains her son's ashes. A few days later, Anais is found dead, floating in the slimy Mithi River, a pink nylon cord wrapped ritually around her neck. What does the box full of ashes and bones have to do with Anais's murder? What is the significance of the peculiar knots round her neck? Lalli must find answers, fast, if she is to prevent more deaths.