Set largely amidst the independent film community of Mumbai, Times of Ferment, Book 1 of The Outraged, reveals the conflicts that confront Indian liberals—both the hypocritical and those that want to bring about social change—in the wake of the right wing’s ascent to power.

The protagonists include brilliant film-maker and idealist Ahishor Frances, who’s attacked because he exposes ‘Navy Baba’, a God-man, as a fraud; young actress Maithili Krishna, for whom modern civilization is corrupt and requires dismantling; and the happily unemployed Sasha, full of unusual purity and faith in God, who befriends Ahishor and Versova’s ‘strugglers’, and falls in love with Maithili.

What follows when some of these strugglers are galvanized into action by the attack on Ahishor? What drives them to it? What path will Maithili eventually take? Is Sasha’s belief in love and God, vindicated?