In 1830s India, a father encourages his daughter to marry a dying man in order to inherit his wealth. However, she is expected to practice the ancient, yet outlawed, Hindu ritual known as sati in which the widow throws herself on the burning funeral pyre of her late husband.

Long shots and poetic images create a brooding atmosphere in this film, which documents oppressive Brahmanical ways against the backdrop of 19th-century Bengal. Based on the novel Mahayatra by Kamal Kumar Majumdar, this compelling drama by Goutam Ghose premiered at Un Certain Regard in 1988.