“Life is not a fairytale”—or so Pakhi Arora’s friends have been telling her for years, to no avail. Aged twenty-five and pursuing a serious academic career, Pakhi still holds dear her small-town values and the naiveté of a teenager in matters of the heart. But in Bombay—the city of neatly-parcelled loyalties—she has learned to pass through with a veneer of practicality.

An apprenticeship in Karma Positive—the high-profile social incubator—to work alongside her friends Aisha and Vihaan under the tutelage of the charismatic Kadambari or Kaddy, severely challenges Pakhi’s belief system. How far will this glamorous world drive her to compromise—especially when her crush, the handsome and flirtatious Samar Khurana pursues her? Yes, she is falling madly in love…but as Samar’s workaholism and rumoured affairs plunge Pakhi into a spiral of heartbreak and betrayal, she is forced to question whether he really is her fairytale hero, or a satin-grey antagonist.

Can Pakhi trust even her friends…or will her vulnerability be taken further advantage of? Will she discover her fairy-dust to have been a mere shimmer of city lights on smog, or does magic still hang in the air?