Synopsis
Bishnu is a Bhutanese Nepali living in Akron in Ohio, who has become an American citizen. He works in a factory that produces seedlings, shares his wife’s moonshine with his neighbors, and dreams of
returning to Bhutan for one last time. He thinks that his status as a national sporting hero from the
1980s will persuade the Bhutanese government to grant him a visa to return for a visit, but the
Bhutanese consulate in Washington D.C. repeatedly rejects his request for a visa.
Bishnu’s two sons, Karma and Nirpang, are becoming more rooted in the American society – one is a
successful entrepreneur while the other is in the US Army. His only grandson, Gungun, is becoming
American in ways the family doesn’t foresee. One day, Vishnu believes that he has been granted a visa to go back to Bhutan. The entire Bhutanese Nepali American community celebrates this good news, asks him to bring back photos from their old homes from where they were forcibly removed.
But Bishnu hasn’t been granted a visa – his request has been rejected one last time. The disappointment is too much for Vishnu, who leaves his body in very spiritual way in a broken heart. At the funeral home, preparing for a cremation, his two sons cannot agree if Bishnu should be buried or cremated – a pastor and Nirpang claim that Bishnu was baptized, while Karma refuses to believe that.
While his sons argue about the fate of his corpse, Bishnu finds his own solution in the afterlife, in the
form of a fire which burns down the funeral home where he is stored in a coffin. His grandson Gungun, who has been mourning the death of his grandfather, finally begins to understand his grandfather’s wisdom in insisting upon a return to homeland and family.