Lahore, India, 1947; it is a time of great turmoil, as the British divided India into two, the Republic of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. India was fighting to maintain independence, and this rather mirrors the life of the movie's protagonist and narrator, Lenny, a little girl suffering from the debilitating disease of polio.
Lenny as an adult narrates her story. Her family is wealthy and not particularly political. They hope to remain partisan as religious tensions rise all around them; the Muslim community begin to act as aggressors against the more peaceful Hindu and Sikh inhabitants of Lahore. Lenny has led a rather sheltered life; her parents dote on her and try to protect her from the world. Lenny has a nanny named Shanta, who is extremely beautiful, and the object of desire for most of the men in the neighborhood. Two strong suitors are the ice cream man, Dil Navaz, and Hassan, who is a masseur. They are both Muslim, Shanta, a Hindu.
This does not seem problematical to either Shanta or Hassan; at the time, they are part of a large group of friends who are of all different faiths. They spend their free time together, and faith is rarely mentioned; however, after Partition, faith becomes a be-all-and-end-all part of their everyday lives. The bonds that the group share begin to crumble as their faith begins to divide them, resulting in tragedy.
