Uniforms, morning roll call, order, and discipline determine life at a prestigious boarding school somewhere in the Himalaya’s misty foothills. 16-year-old Jaivardhana isn’t thriving in this authoritarian environment. An opportunity for temporary respite from this strict regime presents itself, when a former teacher visits the school and offers interested students a photography workshop. During Mr Sapru’s inspiring lessons, the young people don’t learn about depth of field or shutter speed, but they do learn to open their senses and experience the world around them.

Towards the end of the eighth century, an architect journeys across the lower Himalayas in search of the perfect site for constructing a temple, not merely as a place of worship but as a monumental record crystallizing the collective accomplishment of a civilization.