.Dayal Singh is brilliant, quirky, & has Asperger's. . Son of parents trafficked to East Africa from India just before independence, he knows he's Sikh, African, and calculus is the evidence of God.
He becomes fascinated by a broken piano. and is offered a piano to sell, buys it and learns to play.
Mentored by his older brothers, he follows them to Singapore to further his education, then goes to Switzerland.
He falls in love with the granddaughter of the man who bought his father. She tells him that the situation is impossible, and that he must stay in school as long as his way is paid.
His youth is fraught, being an other. In Switzerland, he is constantly proselytized to, which only defines for him how he wants to live. He's studying physics and engineering, but finds peace in playing the piano. He meets other students, they jam, and suddenly they are rock stars...which Dayal never imagined could happen.
He agrees to meet Sita, the daughter of a Sikh man his father met, and Dayal thinks they are both in agreement about how they will live and raise children, but things gradually go downhill. When Dayal learns Sita hasn't been truthful with him, he has to make a decision.