Nectar in a sieve tells the tales of joy and tragedy from a first persons view, in a period of intense urban development in the country a fictional story that foretells the life of rukmani, daughter of a village headman and her lover, nathan, a tenant farmer, to whom she gets married at the age of 12 an english doctor by the name of kenny also plays a major role in the story as he rids her of her infertility issues, after which she bears five sons rukmani and nathan also have a problem with debt they sell most of their possessions in order to clear the dues they owe to the landowner, only to be able to clear only half of the full amount on the year of their marriage, monsoon rains down on the fields and they lose their crops, their only means of livelihood, leaving them to rely on their savings and wages the savings dont hold up