koly is a 13 year-old girl who lives in vrindavan india with her parents and two brothers. based on indian tradition, her family has made an arranged marriage for her. her husband is a sickly, young boy named hari. once they are married, koly must go to live with his family. but soon koly finds out that hari has tuberculosis and he will die very soon. hari's parents had decided to take hari to the ganges river and koly comes along too. while going to the city of the ganges river, hari dies. when hari dies, koly becomes a widow. koly's sassur (father- in-law) is a kind man who teaches students. he teaches koly to read and shows her a book of poems signed by the author tagore. koly's sass (mother-in-law) is not a nice woman. she treats koly as just another mouth to feed.