Swartham takes us into the midst  of a set of closely linked characters and narrates the tale of their lives, how the swirls of selfishness that spews out from one individual, poisons the lives of all those around him and how in the end the perpetrator is mortally stung  by the venom of his own past misdeeds . 

A story that could well be a chapter extracted from our own lives , peopled with characters who are mirror images of  those dear to us, Swartham underlines the dictum that selfishness is the root of all human misery.

Siddharthan, one of the corporate heads of the Mythili empire, is a self-centered egotist who imposes his will ruthlessly on others ; his constant bullying had stunted the personality of his only son  Dr. Jeevan, brow beaten into submission from childhood.  Venugopal the Chartered Accountant of  the firm and his family  are also the hapless victims of his megalomania and brutal selfishness. Venugopal’s family consists of his wife and three children Aarathi, Nithi and Gauri and his adopted daughter, the enigmatic Daya fleeing from the haunting memories of a dark past .

The Chief partner of the group Nandagopan who had been residing abroad  returns home with his infant daughter Neelima ;the whereabouts of his wife is unknown , in fact a great deal of Nandu’s past is shrouded in mystery.  Hovering on the edges of the story is an old man Sreeraman,  a keeper of secrets which if  unlocked could change the course of many lives….

Dr. Jeevan is deeply in love with Aarathi but his ambitious father had fixed up an alliance with Maya, the daughter of a prominent industrialist.  Daya who has been engaged as a tutor to Neelima is discovered dead in Nandagopan’s home. And as, unable to challenge the dictates of his tyrannical father  Jeevan wavers, like Hamlet, indecisively  between the woman he has pledged his heart to and the woman chosen for him and Nandagopan confesses to the murder , the threads of the tale become more tangled  and  perplexing …