Set in the newly independent and defiantly hopeful India of the early 1960s, The Hottest Summer in Years is a story of one's inner demons and if love might bring deliverance from them. As an important factory takes shape with German collaboration in a central Indian town, Hans Gerder finds himself on a learning curve once more. Just as it has been all his life. With a childhood spent in southwest Africa, and then learning harsh truths about Germany in the early 1940s, Hans is at times confused about the past and his own role in it. As a witness to evil, Hans is haunted by what he has seen, and is unsure about his chances for love and redemption. But in this somnolent yet simmering Indian town, circumstances link his life closely to young Lipsa's, who is as lonely and lost as he is. When a body is discovered unexpectedly in the forest, Hans finds himself shielding Lipsa and her family from the predatory instincts of an ambitious police officer. As the present tumbles out of his grip, will he finally find the answers to his past?