When Alice marries Ramesh, she enters into a conflict with his mother, Shiva, who will protect her family’s traditions at any cost.

  Ram wants the modern way of life; Alice embraces the culture he is trying to leave behind. Shiva, namesake of a god, disapproves of both. She usurps Alice’s authority in her own home-- redecorates it, imposes Hindu rituals on the household, and interferes with the raising of Alice and Ram’s son.

 In time Amma begins to bond with Alice, only to be distracted by daughter Nela’s latest act of defiance, which sets off a chain of events culminating in a family secret
and changing the course of the women’s relationship, and forces Alice to use her ingenuity and patience to heal Shiva and the rift between them.  

The title refers to Shiva, god of creation and destruction. who holds emblems of each in multiple hands and arms, and whose every footfall is said to be felt across continents. The image speaks both to Alice’s fragile center, and the ambiguity she feels from her mother-in-law.

  Ultimately, this is not just an immigrant tale but also a universal story about finding a   place to call home.