Radha is labeled the Bad Luck Girl after both parents die and sets out to find her runaway sister Lakshmi.

Lakshmi has built a successful henna business in Jaipur, employing a street boy named Malik as her assistant.

Lakshmi negotiates with the wealthy Parvati Singh to arrange a marriage between Parvati's son Ravi and a contractor's daughter.

Lakshmi discovers that her estranged husband Hari has tracked her down to Jaipur and is waiting outside her home.

Hari arrives at Lakshmi's unfinished house with a girl she has never met — her younger sister Radha.

Lakshmi learns her parents have died, pays Hari to leave, and takes young Radha into her home.

Lakshmi secures an audience with the dowager maharani and begins treating the young Maharani Latika's severe depression.

Maharani Latika recovers and the dowager empress rewards Lakshmi by offering Radha free enrollment at the palace school for girls.

Lakshmi notices Radha has a persistently upset stomach at the housewarming celebration and grows suspicious her sister is pregnant.

Radha confesses that Ravi Singh is the father of her baby, having met him secretly near the polo grounds.

Parvati Singh spreads rumors that Lakshmi steals from her clients, and appointments begin to cancel overnight.

Kanta suffers a miscarriage in Shimla while Radha goes into labor and delivers a healthy baby boy.

Lakshmi sees Kanta and her husband grieving their loss and decides to let them adopt Radha's newborn son.

After her henna business collapses, Lakshmi sells her house and decides to relocate to Shimla to work with Dr. Kumar.

Lakshmi, Radha, and Malik board a train for Shimla as a reformed Hari appears at the platform to say farewell.

After fleeing her abusive husband years earlier, Lakshmi has quietly built a prosperous life as a henna artist in Jaipur. Her carefully ordered world is upended when her estranged husband Hari arrives with her orphaned sister Radha, forcing Lakshmi to confront her buried past. Lakshmi takes Radha in and leverages her growing social connections to treat the depressed young maharani, expanding her business to new heights. A crisis erupts when Radha falls pregnant by the son of Lakshmi's most powerful patron, triggering a malicious gossip campaign that destroys Lakshmi's reputation and income overnight. The sisters travel to Shimla where the fate of the baby is unexpectedly resolved and Lakshmi discovers a new calling as a healer at a mountain hospital. Freed at last from the house that symbolized her guilt, Lakshmi boards a train toward a genuine fresh start.

Lakshmi's journey from hiding in Jaipur to finding a new life in Shimla.

Samir Singh pays Lakshmi for contraceptive sachets and refers her to an Englishwoman named Mrs. Harris who needs her services.

Mrs. Harris overdoses on the abortifacient herbs Lakshmi provided and is brought to Lakshmi's home near death in the night.

Dr. Kumar and Lakshmi work through the night together to stabilize the dangerously ill Mrs. Harris.

Lakshmi introduces Radha to her client Kanta and paints a henna design of babies on Kanta's abdomen to encourage pregnancy.

Radha borrows a copy of Jane Eyre from Kanta and begins immersing herself in Western literature.

Lakshmi and Radha paint a sand mandala at the Sharma family courtyard as Lakshmi quietly evaluates Sheela as a match candidate.

Radha watches Ravi Singh perform as Othello at the Singh family gala and is captivated, sparking their fateful connection.

Samir informs Lakshmi she has secured an audience with the dowager maharani and gifts her a specially designed gold pocket watch.

Kanta is confirmed pregnant, with Lakshmi's medicinal herbs credited for helping her conceive after years of trying.

Threatened by her builder for immediate payment, Lakshmi reluctantly borrows a large sum of money from Samir Singh.

Radha returns home from the Maharani School with a black eye after Sheela deliberately elbows her during dance class.

Kanta resolves Radha's social struggles at school by ordering English clothes and arranging a stylish Western haircut for her.

Walking through a poor neighborhood, Lakshmi encounters a Singh family servant cast out after being impregnated and abandoned by Ravi.

Parvati visits Lakshmi's home to retract the theft accusations and offers ten thousand rupees in commission, but Lakshmi refuses.

Local people crowd the Shimla train station to welcome Lakshmi, already grateful for the remedies she had previously sent them.

This pool traces the web of relationships and social dynamics that defined Lakshmi's life in Jaipur, from her alliance with the powerful Singh family to her tender friendship with the childless Kanta. Early scenes reveal Lakshmi's dangerous double life as both henna artist and provider of herbal remedies, illustrated vividly when Mrs. Harris nearly dies from an overdose. Radha's arrival sets off a chain of social friction — she is exposed to Western culture through books and cinema, drawn toward Ravi Singh at the palace gala, and struggles painfully to fit in at school. As Lakshmi's fortunes rise with the maharani's enthusiastic endorsement, Parvati Singh's jealousy eventually brings them crashing down through a targeted campaign of false accusations. The pool closes with the community of Shimla warmly welcoming Lakshmi at the train station, signaling a new life built on genuine gratitude rather than fragile reputation.

The relationships and social encounters that shaped Lakshmi's world in Jaipur.

Shamed by gossips calling her the Bad Luck Girl, Radha enlists her sister's estranged husband Hari to help locate Lakshmi.

Lakshmi waits alone in her darkened unfinished house armed with a knife, bracing for a potentially violent confrontation with Hari.

Lakshmi tells Radha about Hari's abuse and her reasons for fleeing, while Radha reveals how the family was ruined afterward.

Samir reveals to Lakshmi that he first discovered her talent at a brothel in Agra and helped establish her in Jaipur.

Parvati corners Lakshmi in the library after the gala, furious over Ravi's stage makeup found on Radha's face and arm.

Lakshmi forbids Radha from accompanying her to the palace, fearing the girl lacks the sophistication to navigate high society.

Hari stops Lakshmi on the street asking for money to help an injured girl; she agrees only in exchange for a divorce.

Lakshmi attacks Hari believing he fathered Radha's baby, but he defends himself and reveals he now heals women in need.

Lakshmi demands Radha abort the baby, but Radha refuses, insisting she will marry Ravi and keep the child, then flees into the night.

Lakshmi sleeps with Samir at his mistress's residence, then tells him about Ravi and Radha; his cold response leaves her disillusioned.

Samir devises a plan to give Radha's baby to the royal family as an heir and immediately send Ravi to school in England.

Lakshmi travels to the palace to sign the royal adoption paperwork, hesitating at the thought of her nephew raised by strangers.

Radha insists on seeing her newborn son and declares she wants to keep him, refusing to honor the adoption agreement.

Dr. Kumar agrees to falsify the baby's medical report by noting a heart defect, which will void the royal adoption contract.

Radha admits jealousy over Kanta acting as the baby's mother but agrees that leaving Jaipur with Lakshmi is the right choice.

This pool focuses on the turning points and revelations that drive both sisters' inner transformations throughout the novel. From the moment Radha makes the fateful choice to seek out Hari, through Lakshmi's tense reunion with her abusive past, each scene marks a decisive shift in power, knowledge, or moral understanding. The revelation of Ravi's true character — and Samir's cold indifference when confronted with his son's actions — forces Lakshmi to see clearly the limits of the world she has built within Jaipur's patriarchal elite. Radha's fierce but naive insistence on keeping her baby tests every careful boundary Lakshmi has maintained, exposing the hypocrisy at the heart of Lakshmi's own choices. The resolution in Shimla hinges on quiet acts of moral courage: a falsified medical report, a grieving couple offered new hope, and a young sister finally choosing to trust. Together these moments trace how two women each exchange shame and impulsiveness for hard-earned wisdom.