Journalist Desiree Malpen, investigating deceased Indian writer Nyree Singh, is taken to the Singh house, where she is disgusted by the stench of sewage. She observes someone living there; this is Nyree’s elder brother Gopal, in mourning for his brilliant sister, once the toast of Indian society. Desiree, intent on finding gossip about Nyree, talks to Raj Patel, director of the film of Nyree’s final novel, and learns that Gopal Singh safeguards Nyree’s diary, which is full of scandalous secrets. Meanwhile, respectable Professor Whitelaw, commissioned to write about Nyree’s novels, has overheard the conversation. The next day, both Malpen and Whitelaw arrive at the Singh house. Gopal shows the journalist and professor a locked
box containing Nyree’s secrets, which he throws into the cesspit. Whoever retrieves the box will have the key. The next day Whitelaw admits to Gopal that he couldn’t do it, but a triumphant, malodorous Malpen arrives with the box. She unlocks it only to discover sports results – the only secrets which Nyree kept from her brother! Malpen is the victim of an elaborate ruse concocted by Gopal Singh and Patel to prove whether a writer’s intentions are honourable.