The River Is Indigo which begins in Java in the 1930s, is a story of mystical dreams, dire predictions, a family curse and destiny gone wrong. The young, prodigious Hamzah is raised by his grandmother, the enormously matriarchal Ibu Tutik who loves him dearly, in an extraordinary mansion known as the Mataram House. Hamzah's life is intertwined with Mataram House and he is sworn by an oath never to leave it. On his thirteenth birthday his father, Norreddin, steals him away and together they clandestinely escape in the dead of night from Mataram House, thus betraying the sworn oath. Immediately his life is bedeviled with tortuous elements. At every crossroad Mataram House shadows him, tormenting him, deciding for him the path he takes, as though the forces of fate are taking complete control of his own free will. From then on his life is no longer his own to live.