This novel pictures passing through youth of Chandra and Nithya on one hand and Sathya and Prema on the other. Besides picturing Chandra's self-perceived ugliness that stymies his adolescent urges, while depicting Nithya's plight brought about by Vasu's jilting and Prema's dejection occasioned by Sathya's juvenile delinquency, it unfolds the possibilities of life in the oasis of hope - of self-discovery for Chandra, retribution to Nithya and atonement for Sathya - and portrays the pitfalls of unrequited love exemplified by the poetic justice of Kala doing 'a Sathya to Sathya'.