Akhila is forty-five and single, an income-tax clerk, and the woman who has been the backbone of her impossibly demanding family - until the day she gets herself a one-way ticket to a resort town. In the intimate atmosphere of an all-woman sleeping car - the Ladies Coupé - the women share their lives, their loves, their heartaches and their triumphs. All of this leads Akhila to answer the question that has always haunted her: has her life been complete without a man?