Cutting for Stone

Dr. Abhi Ghosh awakens on the day the twins are born after dreaming of the banyan tree at his home in India. He is deeply in love with Hema and wants to marry her, and every time she goes home, he fears that she will get married there. She believes that his love is just teasing, and so he hides it from her. Almaz, his housekeeper, is making coffee—she originally came to Missing with a tumor she thought was a pregnancy, and she stayed on after it was removed, becoming one of the “Missing People,” as Matron calls them. Ghosh and Almaz have had sex, which gives her the right to nag him even though they are not in a relationship. They have a companionable, caring friendship. Since arriving in Ethiopia, Ghosh, an internal medicine specialist, has also become the country’s expert on sexually transmitted diseases.

Ghosh goes about his day, not knowing that Sister is suffering. He goes to the barber for a haircut, then gets his shoes shined and goes to a bar. He sees another doctor with a sex worker he knows and leaves before he has to make conversation. He goes to another establishment and buys a woman a drink because he found out that he was accepted for an internship in America.