At the heart of Ship of Sorrows is a group of young friends, men and women, Hindu and Muslim, living in Lucknow on the cusp of Indian Independence. Like the rest of the country, their lives are in turmoil. Qurratulain Hyder places the six friends in situations that reflect this changing context and reveal their complex relationships with each other and with their altered reality. As the partition of the country looms, and their separation from each other and from their known worlds becomes imminent, their cargo of sorrows gets heavier. Yet, the ship of sorrows is not a doomed ship—through a tangle of sounds, images and emotions, Hyder navigates it to a harbour that promises hope and renewal.