When a wealthy patriarch falls ill on his 70th birthday, three of his sons rush in from Calcutta, leading to a reunion filled with painful ironies and lingering disillusionment. As the family—including an addled fourth son who lives with the old man—watches and waits, the static occasion brings out simmering tensions in their family dynamics, from the father’s moral rectitude to the business ambition of two sons and the withdrawal of their siblings.

The Branches of the Tree

Sen Gupta, a doctor who only treats upper-class patients, is forced to confront his own moral and medical beliefs as he discovers rural India during an unexpected stop at a village. He finds a breathless man lying on the side of the road. With little sympathy, the doctor sends him back to his own village for treatment. When Dr. Gupta discovers that the villages want a witch doctor to treat the man, he attends the exorcism and is shocked. A transformation of the cold city man then follows.