Annawadi is a slum at the edge of Mumbai Airport; in the shadow of shining new luxury hotels. Its residents are garbage recyclers; construction workers and economic migrants; all of them living in the hope that a small part of India's booming future will eventually be theirs. But when a crime rocks the slum community and global recession and terrorism shocks the city; tensions over religion; caste; sex; power; and economic envy begin to turn brutal. As Boo gets to know those who dwell at Mumbai's margins; she evokes an extraordinarily vivid and vigorous group of individuals flourishing against the odds amid the complications; corruptions and gross inequalities of the new India.