Jasmine, the novel's protagonist, is born in Hasnapur, India. She is the fifth daughter of her family to be born, which means that she will not have any dowry money for her future marriage. Also, Jasmine's discussion of her life in India mainly focuses on the gender discrimination she experiences there, which proves to be a major theme for the entire novel.

A quotation that shows the gender discrimination that Jasmine faces in India includes: “If I had been a boy, my birth in a bountiful year would have marked me as lucky, a child with a special destiny to fulfill. But daughters were curses. A daughter had to be married off before she could enter heaven, and dowries beggared families for generations” (Mukherjee 39).

Sam Pagliuca

As the novel comes to a close, we learn that the Patriots, a rebel group, brought June and Day here so that they would be safe from harm's way. After the actions that the two had taken in this novel, they would need the shelter and safety from being away from the main city, for now they are both wanted.