 Nawab, a popular Hyderabadi novelist, is suffering from a classic case of writer s block. Five years have passed, and stories of substance seem to have dried up. Then, almost providentially, Nawab comes across a young woman named Meenaxi. She s enigmatic and individualistic - and not quite willing to perform the part of a passive muse. But that doesn t deter a rejuvenated Nawab from giving her different personae - she can be the mysterious perfume trader of Hyderabad, the exotic desert bloom of Jaisalmer, the orphaned Maria of Prague. Inexorably, she consolidates her command over the novelist. She dismisses his renewed attempts at writing as insubstantial and hackneyed, plunging him into a state of deeper despair. She is scathingly critical about his story and is amused by one of his characters, the lovelorn and awkward Kaameshwar. Finally, as Nawab strives on a new page all over again, Meenaxi comments that perhaps the book is in vain. In any case, it is much too late. The writer must survive and live, if he can, without her support, inspiration and criticism...