The characters themselves describe this book as a Mahabharat told to the cook in a small café.  Like the ancient epic, the story covers many characters and their struggles against powerful beings who exercise control over their lives.  With high emotive power, Mistry brings incredibly detailed description of life on the edge of modern India, from the jhopadpattis (illegal shanty towns), small villages ruled by feudal masters to the elaborate counterculture of the beggars guilds.   Though outlawed 30 years earlier (the main action takes place in 1975), the caste of untouchables still remains a near insurmountable barrier to modernization.