When Charles Arrowby retires from his glittering career in the London theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage. His equilibrium is further disturbed when his friends all decide to come and keep him company and Charles finds his seaside idyll severely threatened by his obsessions.

Manoj Mitta and Harvinder Singh Phoolka have extensive first-hand knowledge on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Mitta is a journalist who has been deeply affected by the cause, and has written about the riots on a vast scale. He works as a senior editor with The Times of India. H.S. Phoolka is a senior advocate who has long spearheaded the campaign for justice to the victims of the riots. He has helped mobilise their testimonies and represented them before successive enquiries.