Tiger Hills is a sweeping multigenerational story set in a coffee plantation in Coorg, southern India, in the 19th Century. The novel begins with the birth of Devi, a special child, who befriends a young boy whose mother has died in tragic circumstances. Devi and Devanna become inseparable as they go to school together and learn more about the extended family that surrounds them. Things change when Devi meets Muthi, a young man who has killed a tiger and is feted as a hero. Although she is still a child and Muthi is a man, Devi vows that one day she will marry him. This love gradually drives a wedge between her and her friend Devanna, who has been taken under the wing of a local missionary. She is blind to the fact that Devanna himself has fallen for her. He leaves the village to study medicine, in the hope that when he returns she will see his worth and return his love, but then a tragedy changes the fate of all three, with far-reaching consequences for the generations to come.