The patriarch, Suryashekhar Chattopadhyay is a deeply religious person and a man of firm principles. He treats the predictions of the horoscope like axiomatic truth, realizing little that such predictions, often interpreted in equivocal language, can be misleading. His obduracy distances him from his only son, Alok, who refuses to put up with his father's unbending attitude to the horoscope. Alok marries outside his caste, denounces his horoscope, and leaves home to settle abroad with his wife. Suryashekhar's wife; an accomplished and educated lady, is reduced to being a mute witness to all this and never protests against her husband's whims and harsh decisions. She bears everything with a quiet, resigned dignity. Their grandson, Arijit comes to stay with them through a strange turn of event, and they are overjoyed. But, by then, Suryashekhar has decided that he will die in Benaras (Kashi) to rid himself of the eternal cycle of rebirth. He decides to check in at Moksha Bhavan