A Suitable Boy is set in 1951, a newly post-independence, post-partition India. The novel follows four families during 18 months, and centres on Mrs. Rupa Mehra (Mahira Kakkar) and her efforts over the arrangement of the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata Mehra (Tanya Maniktala), to a "suitable boy". Lata is a 19-year-old university student who refuses to be influenced by her domineering mother or opinionated brother, Arun Mehra (Vivek Gomber). Her story revolves around the choice she is forced to make between her suitors.