The Dream Builders is the story of one summer in a fictional city in India told from the point of view of ten different characters and bookended by Maneka a Creative Writing professor in the United States who returns to the country after six years away. In her absence India has changed drastically. Maneka finds herself in the beguiling new Americanized city of Hrishipur nicknamed Millennium City and known for its upscale malls headquarters of global corporations and booming real estate developments. What she doesn't realize however is that in Hrishipur nothing is as it appears.
Alongside Maneka we also meet the immaculately groomed Ramona her ambitious husband their moonlighting chauffeur a facialist at a posh spa an entrepreneurial single mother Maneka's aging father his young live-in maid an irreverent photographer and a crippled electrician. All summer as the temperature soars to record highs the longings and resentments of the people of Hrishipur simmer until they come to a boil culminating in a tragedy no one saw coming.