Ma and her family collect their climate visas and passports from the consulate.

Boomba breaks into Ma's home overnight and steals food, money, and the family's passports.

Boomba throws the stolen passports and visas into a trash heap on his way out.

Ma and Dadu report the robbery to the police, who mock them and refuse to help.

Mrs. Sen's security camera shows footage of the thief, giving Ma her first real lead.

Ma tracks Boomba to the shelter and confronts him directly about the stolen passports.

Boomba agrees to help find the passports only if Ma signs over her house to his family.

Boomba leads Ma to the trash heap but flees; Ma searches alone and finds nothing.

Ma visits a photocopier and arranges fake passports, paying with her mother's gold jewelry.

Boomba kidnaps Mishti in the night and takes her by ferry to the billionaire's hexagon feast.

The hexagon guests riot, a ferry sinks, and Boomba drops a bag of rice to save Mishti.

Dadu beats Boomba with his walking stick and throws him out of the house.

Dadu dies in his sleep and Ma has his body cremated, saying a final goodbye.

Ma and Mishti travel to the airport only to find all flights to America are canceled.

Boomba's father kills Ma with a pressure cooker; Boomba goes to retrieve Mishti from Mrs. Sen.

Ma's family collects the climate visas and passports they need to flee Kolkata for America, but a thief named Boomba breaks in overnight and steals the documents along with their food. Unable to get help from the police or the consulate, Ma tracks Boomba down and is forced into a dangerous deal: he will help her search for the passports in exchange for her house. The search fails, Boomba moves in, and he escalates things by kidnapping Ma's daughter Mishti and taking her to a billionaire's island feast, where a riot ends with a sinking boat and Boomba saving Mishti's life. Ma's father Dadu dies from a head injury sustained during the chaos, and when Ma and Mishti finally reach the airport, all flights to America are canceled. The novel ends with Boomba's family taking over the house and his father killing Ma in a confrontation, leaving Mishti's fate in Boomba's hands.

The headline events of Ma's desperate week in Kolkata.

Ma cooks stolen food for her family and imagines a thief listening for rumors outside.

Ma places her purse on the bedroom floor and leaves a kitchen window cracked before sleeping.

Boomba sells the stolen food directly to hungry people lining up outside a food kitchen.

The consulate clerk threatens to cancel the family's visas, but relents after Dadu claims to be a famous author.

Ma, Dadu, and Mishti walk through the neighborhood showing residents a printed photo of the thief.

A merchant recognizes the thief's stolen Scooby-Doo shirt and directs Ma toward the shelter.

Dadu lies to a ration shop owner, claiming Mishti has diabetes, in an attempt to buy food.

Dadu steals an orange from a crying child at a bank and forces himself to walk away.

Boomba wanders Ma's house in the night, imagining it as his kingdom and seizing a pressure cooker.

Boomba calls his family and lies, telling them his employer is gifting him a house.

Ma and Dadu race to the jetty but arrive too late, watching the last ferry leave without them.

Mishti cannot remember the hexagon trip and throws a tantrum when Ma tries to question her.

The fake passports begin bleeding ink, but a neighbor knocks and returns the original documents.

Ma lies to Baba on the phone, telling him she and Mishti are boarding the plane.

Boomba breaks into Ma's house while she is away and his family arrives from the village to settle in.

Before the robbery, Ma's daily routine of cooking stolen food and leaving a window cracked at night sets the stage for everything that follows. Boomba sells the stolen goods to street crowds and the consulate nearly cancels the family's visas before Dadu saves them with a well-timed lie. Ma's neighborhood search eventually succeeds when a merchant recognizes the thief's stolen shirt and points her toward the shelter. As the crisis deepens, Dadu resorts to lying at a ration shop and stealing fruit from a child, while Boomba settles into Ma's house and deceives his own family. The final chapters bring a cascade of near-misses and hard landings: Ma and Dadu miss the last ferry, the fake passports fail at the worst moment before the real ones reappear, and flights are canceled just as the family reaches the gate. While Ma lies to her husband on the phone that they are boarding, Boomba's family is already moving into the house behind her.

The overlooked moments that shaped every twist in the story.

Dadu gives the rickshaw driver one of the family's scarce cold water bottles during the consulate trip.

Boomba witnesses Ma stealing eggs from the shelter and decides to target her home.

An editor who once published Dadu's work agrees to enhance the blurry security camera footage.

Ma pays a woman to distribute reward flyers for the passports, but the woman tears them up and leaves.

Dadu buys Mishti a street painting of a rhino, choosing beauty over the snacks they need to survive.

Dadu robs a household after asking them for water, steals cauliflower, and is beaten and badly injured.

Dadu and Ma share the stolen cauliflower with Mishti, and her laughter briefly restores their spirits.

Boomba arrives at Ma's door demanding to live in her storeroom, threatening to expose her embezzlement.

Boomba decides to steal from the billionaire despite armed guards patrolling every path on the hexagon.

Shanto confronts the billionaire face-to-face, accusing her of insulting the city by hoarding food.

Shanto drowns in the river after pushing children onto a rescue craft as the ferry sinks.

Dadu faints and strikes his head on a table; Ma revives him but he refuses to go to the hospital.

Baba warns Ma during a phone call that anti-immigration protests in America are growing dangerously.

A chapter from Baba's perspective reveals that immigration feels like an unhealing wound to him.

Boomba finds Mishti at Mrs. Sen's house and takes her hand, leading her home with him.

Small choices carry enormous consequences in this novel, from Dadu giving away a precious water bottle to Boomba spotting Ma stealing and deciding to target her home. A street editor's offer to enhance blurry footage changes the course of the investigation, while Ma's reward flyers are torn up in her face, pushing her toward the forger. Dadu's moral collapse accelerates through a series of desperate acts — lying about Mishti's health, stealing from a child, and finally robbing a household — each one leaving a mark that builds toward his death. On the hexagon, Boomba chooses to steal despite armed guards, and Shanto's direct confrontation with the billionaire triggers a riot that ends in drowning. The novel closes with a chain of revelations: Baba's chapter exposes the hidden wound of immigration, his warning about protests proves prophetic, and the final image of Boomba taking Mishti's hand suggests that only by extending care beyond one's own family can any hope survive.