Set in the year 1991, this novel is about a young Japanese scientist arriving in a small South Indian village to carry out research; of his getting involved in the community by coaching a band of young men play football and creating a successful team; of him falling in love with a local woman and the situation with her family who are against their relationship, and the circumstances that lead to his life being threatened by an ex-soldier who fought for the British in WW2, holding a 50-year old grudge against the Japanese people, wanting to kill him.