THE FOURTH PASSENGER is set in Mumbai during the Hindu-Muslim conflict of the early 1990s. It is the story of four women raised with traditional values, whose friendship gives them emotional solace, economic self-sufficiency, and the temerity to stand up to religious extremism.

Having reached their thirties, the four friends are disillusioned with their lives and marriages—to an alcoholic husband, a zealously religious husband, an abusive husband, and a missing husband. Together, they decide to open an urban food stand, which they call Stree, the Hindustani word for "woman." In order to establish the fledgling business, they must contend with extortionists, ruthless competitors, and religious intolerance. They also battle memories of a distant past, when two of them loved the same man. Their friendship ultimately goes beyond individual temperament, caste, religion, and sexual orientation and becomes, for them, as precious as sisterhood.