Unable to see, hear, or speak after a childhood illness, a young woman grows up prone to violent outbursts until an eccentric tutor changes her life.

The story of Sukhadi, a twelve-year-old Adivasi girl who makes a daily trip to a sleepy railway station to fetch water. This banal activity is transformed into an adventure by her chance meeting with Zainaab, a beautiful and mysterious, thirteen-year-old gypsy girl. Zainaab challenges Sukhadi to jump on to the old-fashioned narrow gauge train that takes holiday makers to Matheran on top of the mountain.