Ajay is an eight-year-old boy living in Delhi, India. He lives with his working mother, father and brother. Ajay's father isn't the traditional father figure in the house, as he doesn't work and thus isn't the bread winner who puts food on the plate for his family, yet he manages to move to America and buys plane tickets for the family a year later.
As the family moves, they sell all their things in order to venture over to the new land. Life is different in America, and a lot easier, even though Ajay has trouble finding friends. Meanwhile, his brother, Birju, finds it easy. Sadly, Birju is hurt in an accident that leaves him brain damaged, and the family spends their time and money tending to their eldest son.
Birju is transferred to a new hospital, but much to the family's dismay, he isn’t treated well: he is overfed, not changed out of his clothing, and objects are found under his body. They end up moving him back home, where he becomes a constant burden, even pushing the father to become an alcoholic. Ajay wishes that his parents would notice him, yet there are too focused on their grief, and they forget their second son.
Ajay begins living a perfect life, one in which he acts as a perfect son and manages to get a girlfriend he hopes he can have a future with. Ajay studies and becomes rich, and even then, he doesn’t let happiness consume him, as he knows his family is suffering. In the epilogue, Ajay realizes how bad the family has burdened him, and he still does not know how to handle happiness.
