A young man named Henry sits down with his grandmother, a genial lady still called Baby by everyone, in the Manhattan townhouse where he has lived all his life with her, to record the history of a spiritual movement that has woven itself into the fabric of their family's lives for four generations.

What unfolds is a mesmerizing family saga: the imperious great-grandmother Elsa and her husband, an Indian poet, whose marriage is as unconventional as the movement they help to found; Baby, their cheerfully pragmatic daughter, married to the aloof English diplomat Graeme; bemused and brooding Renata, Baby and Graeme's daughter, married to an idle dreamer; and finally Henry, Renata's son, who in many ways bears the legacy of all that has gone before.

Their lives - and that of the movement's elusive yet ineluctable founder, known only as the Master - intertwine, diverge, and collide with each other in a masterfully orchestrated story spanning the twentieth century and several continents.