The film begins in 1972 when Idi Amin expelled Asians from Uganda. This included Jay (Roshan Seth) his wife, Kinnu (Sharmila Tagore), and their daughter, Mina (Sarita Choudhury), a family of third-generation Ugandan Indians residing in Kampala. It then moves forward to 1990. After spending a few years in England, Jay, Kinnu, and Mina have relocated in 1987 to Greenwood, Mississippi to live with family members who own a chain of motels there. Kinnu obtains work in a liquor store and Mina works for the motel of her extended family there (the Monte Cristo). She falls in love with Demetrius (Denzel Washington), a local African American self-employed carpet cleaner. The respective families erupt in turmoil after the pair are discovered and confronted by members of the Indian family during a clandestine weekend of pleasure in Biloxi. Ultimately, the two families cannot come to terms with the interracial pair, who flee the state together in Demetrius's van. After a brief return to Kampala to attend a court proceeding on the disposition of his confiscated Ugandan house, Jay relinquishes his long-nurtured dream of returning to Uganda, the place he considered home.