August 1947. Lahore is coming apart, and nobody is moving slowly enough to grieve it properly.

As Partition forces mass migration, Sikander Mirza and his family arrive from Lucknow to occupy an allotted haveli and, to their surprise, find Mai, who was its elderly former owner. She is still living there, having lost everyone to the riots and refusing to abandon the only home she has left. What begins as tension slowly turns into an unlikely bond across religious lines, even as violence embodied by the menacing Yaqoob Pehalwan closes in around them. When Mai dies, fanatics deny her a proper funeral, and Sikander, defying the mob, leads the rites himself, which shows a final act of humanity amid the city's collapse.