The Professor of Light is the story of young Meggie Singh and her father, a charming, befuddled professor of philosophy from the Caribbean. Meggie grows from childhood to the brink of being an adult, groomed by her father in a rich mix of philosophy and storytelling, which illuminates the lost history of her family scattered over India, Guyana, America and England. Now older, she learns to recognize the scratch of his pen on paper, the curves of his thoughts, as he struggles to write a book on the nature of light. The paradox of light, both particle and wave, comes to resonate with the larger questions of identity and immigration, of belonging and moving on.