An epic of power, love, lust and sacrifice set sometime in the India's distant past. The land is in its 10th year of drought. Its ruler has appointed his son Paravasu as chief priest -- a role for which he must forsake his family and all worldly pursuits to conduct periodic ritual human sacrifices by fire to appease the gods and thereby bring rain. However, the ambitious Paravasu is put to the test when, after abandoning his beautiful wife Vishakha for seven years, no rain falls.