The film is set in 1893, during the late Victorian period of India's colonial British Raj. The story takes place in a small village in Central India, whose settlers, overloaded by high taxes, and several years of drought, find themselves in an bizarre situation as an arrogant British army officer challenges them to a game of cricket, as a wager to avoid paying the taxes they owe. The narrative spins around this situation as the villagers face the extremely difficult task of learning a game that is strange and new to them and playing for a result that will change their village's destiny.