Adaptability is the key to survival - survival of a girl-child!Maya is born in pre-independent India to a hard-working South Indian farmer and toddy tapper; but she is not welcomed, for she is not a son. The indigent farmer is murdered when the girl is only ten years old leaving her, illiterate and helpless, to take on this world. Gokuldas is born into a poor fisherman's family of coastal South India, and is unusually bright for someone from his background. At the age of sixteen, on an impulse, Gokuldas stows away on a steamship to reach the unknown shores of Bombay. Fate has its own design for Gokuldas and Maya. Maya, at the age of twelve, is brought to Bombay and events lead her to meet Gokuldas and fall in love with him. Years pass amidst life's drama and as the young married couple grow older, a latent intense evil streak in Gokuldas pushes Maya to seek divorce from him. Will she succeed in separating from Gokuldas and live life on her own terms? Who is the father of first child, if not Gokuldas? How events which took place even before Maya was born influence the course of her life? Does Maya survive all this? Can she?
