The narrative begins with Ram Mohammed Thomas, a penniless waiter, being arrested in the middle of the night for winning a television quiz show. Thomas explains that arrests are commonplace in Dharavi, also known as “Asia’s biggest slum” (2). After the arrest, Thomas is taken to a hot and dirty interrogation room where he is accosted by Inspector Godbole. Godbole comments on the fact that Thomas’s name mixes “up all the religions” (3). Eventually, other men enter the room, among them Neil Johnson, a representative of the company that licenses the quiz show, and Billy Nanda, the show’s producer. After a lengthy conversation, it’s revealed that Thomas has won a billion dollars on the quiz show, but the company can’t afford to pay the prize. Instead, the show’s affiliates want the police to interrogate Thomas until he confesses to cheating so that he will have to forfeit the prize money. 

With the other men gone, Godbole begins physically torturing Thomas. Although Thomas didn’t cheat, he thinks about confessing just to stop the pain. However, right before he confesses, a woman named Smita Shah comes into the room claiming to be Thomas’s lawyer. Thomas has no idea who Shah is and passes out.