 It also portrays the struggle of the newer generation in order to move into an atomic family structure from a strictly hierarchical joint family structure where even the elders have an even more elderly person who dictate the terms.The novel talks about Jamun, a work less young man and his old father, Shyamanand, his dying mother, Urmila.The novel opens at the death bed of Urmila and takes you through the story of this middle-class family.