The Inheritance of Loss

Sai Mistry, a 17-year-old girl in 1986 India, sits on the steps of her home reading about the giant squid in National Geographic. Her grandfather, the judge, plays chess inside the drafty, dilapidated house of Cho Oyu, while the cook makes dinner in the kitchen and Mutt the dog lies sleeping. Sai is waiting for Gyan, her math tutor and beau, who is presumably waylaid by the fog.

Sai walks inside to find the judge sleeping. He wakes, demanding tea from the cook. The cook makes tea and complains of pain, saying he would be dead but for the help of his son Biju, who works in America. Sai delivers tea and unappetizing biscuits to the disgruntled judge. The cook scuttles over to serve the judge chocolate pudding.

Three boys, Nepali insurgents, approach the house in want of the judge’s hunting rifles. Mutt barks at them, and the boys step back in fear. Mutt wags her tail, and the boys approach again demanding guns. The judge denies he has them, and the boys threaten to kill the family one by one, with Sai last.