As a child named Nayan Tara, Tilo displays extraordinary gifts that bring fame and dangerous pride to her village.

Sea serpents rescue Tilo from her life as a pirate queen and lead her to the mystical Island.

Tilo defiantly chooses the name Tilottama at her ceremony despite the Old One's warning that the name forbids her from ever loving a man.

Tilo runs her Oakland spice shop, using mystical knowledge to serve the struggles and longings of Indian immigrants.

A mysterious American visits Tilo's shop on a Friday night and their accidental touch ignites her first forbidden desire.

Lalita visits the shop weeping, confessing her husband's ongoing physical abuse and her thoughts of dying by suicide.

Tilo gives Lalita fennel seeds for strength, and the spices immediately speak to warn her she has overstepped her boundaries.

Tilo breaks a foundational rule and leaves the spice shop for the first time to visit Geeta at her office.

During a daylight visit, Tilo and the mysterious American exchange true names and he reveals he is called Raven.

Tilo finds a lump of alum on the shop floor — the spices' signal that Shampati's fire is coming for her within three days.

Tilo consumes the powerful spice makaradwaj and transforms herself into a woman of extraordinary youth and beauty.

Tilo gives Haroun lotus root for a lifetime of passionate loving rather than the red chilies she had prepared for his revenge.

Tilo returns to the spice shop and tries repeatedly to enter Shampati's fire, but the spices refuse to ignite it.

An earthquake strikes Oakland and destroys the spice shop, and Tilo loses consciousness beneath the rubble.

Tilo wakes in Raven's car as an ordinary middle-aged woman, takes the name Maya, and chooses to return with Raven to help Oakland rebuild.

Tilo begins as a gifted child named Nayan Tara whose longing leads her to the Island, where she trains under the Old One and becomes a Mistress of Spices. She settles in Oakland and devotes herself to healing the Indian immigrant community through her spice shop, bound by strict rules against touching others, leaving the store, or loving anyone. Her resolve begins to crack when a mysterious American named Raven awakens forbidden desire in her, and she grows increasingly entangled in the lives of Lalita, Geeta, Haroun, and Jagjit at the cost of her powers. After discovering the alum signal that Shampati's fire is coming for her, she uses the potent spice makaradwaj to transform herself and spends one final night with Raven, accepting the consequences. She returns to the shop intending to enter the fire, but the spices deny her that fate, leaving her powerless as an earthquake reduces the shop to rubble. She wakes in Raven's car transformed into an ordinary middle-aged woman named Maya, and chooses to return to Oakland to help rebuild rather than flee to Raven's imagined paradise.

Tilo's journey from mystical Mistress to mortal woman named Maya.

The Old One accepts Tilo as a trainee despite her unsuitable hands because the spices respond uniquely to her touch.

Haroun visits the spice store and kisses Tilo's hands in gratitude, causing her first breach of the rule against touching customers.

Jagjit, a 10-year-old boy tormented by bullying and cultural isolation, enters the store with his mother and Tilo secretly gives him cinnamon for strength.

The Mistresses walk one by one into Shampati's fire, painlessly reborn into their new bodies and distant homes.

Geeta's grandfather visits the store and complains bitterly about Geeta's modern and independent lifestyle.

Geeta's grandfather returns to the store devastated after Geeta reveals her romance with Juan Cordero and her parents disown her.

The mysterious American's unexpected visit startles Tilo into cutting her finger; he places it in his mouth and the wound heals.

Kwesi comes into the shop and asks Tilo's permission to put up a flyer for his martial arts dojo.

During her first trip outside the shop, Tilo purchases a forbidden mirror at a Sears department store without fully understanding why she wants it.

Geeta's grandfather visits Tilo in desperation and she gives him a spice mixture granting him a golden tongue to reconcile his family.

Raven arrives for their day together and gives Tilo a beautiful dress; she confesses feeling too old to wear it.

On a beach walk with Raven, Tilo intends a kiss of compassion but it lands on his lips and becomes romantic.

The bougainvillea girls spot Tilo with Raven outside a beachfront restaurant and openly mock her age and appearance.

A long-delayed letter from Lalita arrives, revealing she has left her abusive husband and is now living in a shelter for battered women.

After crossing Richmond Bridge, Tilo tells Raven she cannot seek his earthly paradise and must return to help Oakland's people.

Before Tilo even arrives in Oakland, the Old One accepts her as a trainee because of her unusual bond with the spices, and later the Mistresses walk through Shampati's fire to be reborn in their assigned homes. In Oakland, small transgressions accumulate: Haroun's grateful kiss breaks Tilo's rule against touch, young Jagjit's pain draws out her empathy, and Geeta's family crisis pulls her deeper into the lives of those she serves. Her connection to the mysterious American grows when his midnight visit ends with him healing a cut on her finger, and her decision to buy a mirror during her first outing signals a growing need to see herself. As the stakes rise, she equips Geeta's grandfather with a golden tongue to reconcile his family, shares a first kiss with Raven on the beach, and is publicly humiliated by the bougainvillea girls. A delayed letter from Lalita confirms that her help has borne fruit, and when Raven drives her out of the damaged city she makes the decisive choice to turn back rather than escape into fantasy.

The supporting moments that slowly pull Tilo away from her rules.

Tilo's deep longing for a different life summons the ancient sea serpents, who rescue her from the pirates and show her the way to the Island.

Tilo secretly slips a packet of turmeric into Lalita's groceries, her first act of empathy that quietly bends the rules.

Tilo chooses Oakland as her posting despite the Old One's cryptic warning that she has a feeling the choice will bring Tilo into danger.

Tilo searches the shelves and finds asafetida — an antidote to love — as Raven's root spice, but cannot bring herself to give it to him.

When Raven visits again, Tilo gives him churan instead of the asafetida, choosing to leave open the possibility of love between them.

Teenager Jagjit returns to the store after years away, now disrespectful and visibly drifting toward gang life.

The Old One appears to Tilo in a vivid dream and delivers a stark warning about the chaos that follows when a Mistress uses her power for personal gain.

Raven reveals to Tilo how he discovered his hidden Indigenous heritage through his mother's secret past and a dying great-grandfather.

Tilo laboriously splits kalo jire seeds by hand to give Haroun protection after a vision shows an Indian man beaten by white supremacists.

Furious over Haroun's brutal attack, Tilo breaks open a container of red chilies and releases a destructive force into the city she cannot call back.

Through a chili-induced vision, the Old One reveals to Tilo that she too was once recalled and offers to intercede on Tilo's behalf.

Tilo locks Geeta and her estranged father alone in the storeroom together, refusing to release them until they reconcile.

Raven tells Tilo about his near-fatal drug overdose and a recurring dream of a raven and earthly paradise, asking her to help him find it.

For the first time, Tilo looks into the mirror she bought at Sears and is frightened by the profound, otherworldly beauty staring back.

Tilo confronts Raven with the realization that each has exoticized the other; he accepts this truth and chooses to truly know her instead.

Tilo's transformation begins long before Oakland: her longing for a different life was the very force that summoned the sea serpents and set her on the path to the Island, and her deliberate choice of a dangerous posting signals her restless nature from the start. In the spice shop, quiet acts of defiance accumulate — slipping turmeric to Lalita, refusing to give Raven the asafetida that would have ended any chance of love — until the Old One appears in a dream to warn her of consequences she is already courting. The revelations deepen when Raven shares the story of his hidden Indigenous heritage, when Tilo sees a newspaper account of a brutal hate crime and fears for Haroun, and when she unleashes the red chilies in anger only to learn she cannot call their destruction back. In her final hours as a Mistress she locks Geeta and her estranged father in the storeroom until they reconcile, hears Raven's account of his near-fatal drug overdose and his vision of an earthly paradise, and at last looks in the mirror she has owned for weeks and is frightened by what she sees. The arc closes when she confronts Raven about the fantasies each has projected onto the other, and he chooses to truly know her rather than the illusion — marking the beginning of a real relationship built on honesty rather than enchantment.