Françoise, an Australian photographer, travels to Bhopal in India, where 20 years earlier a gas leak killed thousands. There she meets Naga, a Tibetan refugee whose family died in the disaster, and Arkay, a Scottish traveler battling addiction, who has found solace in Buddhism. As a testament to their time together Françoise assembles photographs from their lives into an album, the Red Book. The photographs tell their stories of love, struggle and transformation—pointing to the people they have been and who they will become. The three narrators'
beautifully realized voices show how lives entwine and split apart, and the story captures the irresistible lure of India for outsiders, the promise of its spirituality, and its layered history.