Tom Pickle, Britains top pop artiste, travels to Bombay, India, in the 1960s to learn to play the sitar (musical instrument) from renowned maestro Ustad Zafar Khan. Tom is taken to Zafars home, where he gets to meet his wife and several daughters, and the maestro himself. Zafar never has had a disciple like Tom, and is clearly disappointed with his lack of respect. Nevertheless, he asks him to travel to Banares with him. Also accompanying them is a young Caucasian woman named Jenny, who Zafar has taken a liking to, much to his wifes displeasure, and who is more respectful of him than Tom. In Banaras, they get to meet Zafars aging Guru, and his mistress Ghazala, who is expecting a child soon. Zafar hopes that it will be a son. Zafars Guru is quite disappointed with him for having Tom and Jenny as his disciples. An over-awed and overwrought Jenny decides to take it easy--and it is then she witnesses the murder of a courtesan. Watch as events unfold in this peaceful town of Banaras that will change the lives and thought-processes of Zafar, Tom, and Jenny forever.