BEN SANTHANARAJ (27) lands in New Delhi with the expectations of a lovers’ reunion. He’s there to see his girlfriend SUZANNE HOPPER (30), who’s been working at a microfinance NGO in India, and he’s ready to pick things up right where they left off, celebrate the holidays and their anniversary, and create new memories together. The last time Ben was in India was when his mother was dying of cancer. This time is sure to be better. 

But Suzanne isn’t there to meet him when Ben lands at the airport. And when she does arrive, a series of setbacks prevent them from getting close: the constant presence of people, cultural mores around public intimacy, separate bedrooms in the homes of relatives. When they’re finally alone, it’s clear that it wasn’t just the constant interruption of the outside world that kept them apart... Things are no longer the same. Their feelings are out of sync. At best, it’s an adjustment period; at worst, this is the beginning of the end. Despite the uncertainty of their relationship, they decide to continue traveling together. With only a few days until Ben has to leave to go back to New Jersey, it’s a race against the clock to rekindle their intimacy. 

In the Rajasthan village where Suzanne works, Ben is surprised to discover that she’s responsible for collecting overdue loan repayments from local villagers. As much as Suzanne doesn’t want to let on, she is not happy here. Before continuing their travels, Suzanne’s boss gives her more assignments along the way: people she needs to visit and collect money from. 

They travel to Jaipur, where they are alone for the first time and in a more familiar context, surrounded by expats. This turns into its own alienating experience which ultimately brings them closer together. After falling asleep, they make love, as if unconsciously. There are no regrets and things seem to be getting better. It’s the reunion they both wanted. But their respective burdens -- Ben’s unpleasant memories of India and Suzanne’s dehumanizing work responsibilities -- still loom overhead. 

Fearing losing her attention again, unbeknownst to the audience, Ben hides Suzanne’s work documents. He’s able to be there for her in this time of stress. And after an unforeseen detour to visit an estranged uncle leaves Ben shaken, Suzanne attempts to be  there for him. They arrive in Mumbai, their final destination, five days away from New Years Eve. They go out to dinner and Suzanne unburdens herself to Ben, opening up about the trauma that she’s experienced while living in India -- including a family’s suicide over their inability to pay back a microfinance loan -- for the first time. 

As a gesture of gratitude, Suzanne develops an old roll of film that fell out of Ben’s suitcase. The memories on this roll of film -- most likely from his last trip to India, when his mother was dying -- are the last thing Ben wants to be reminded of. In a moment of spite, Ben reveals Suzanne’s stolen work documents. Just like that, it’s over. They go to sleep, angry. And then...Ben shits the bed from food poisoning. 

Suzanne, gracious about the food poisoning but still livid over their fight, checks into her own hotel room. Ben attempts to recover, alone. Suzanne continues her work, alone. But the pull towards each other, towards reconciliation, keeps rearing its head. In his solitude, Ben begins to understand that it’s futile to try to control the rhythms of life and that he must surrender to its flow. On his way to make peace with Suzanne, he collapses to the ground…

Suzanne returns from a work visit where she has to put financial pressure on a monastery. Deciding to right her wrong no matter the personal cost, Suzanne falsifies the accounting ledger. She looks around the hotel for Ben, only to discover that he’s been taken to the hospital. She rushes through the New Year's Eve traffic towards the hospital. She finds Ben in the hospital ward looking through the photographs she developed, which were from a happy time in India before his mother had gotten sick. It’s not like originally planned, but they spend their New Years together, ready to forgive. 

But timing isn’t on their side -- Ben has to return home. They leave each other not with regret and sadness, but acceptance of the significance of their time together in each other’s lives, brief as it was.