Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli are arranged to be married by their families in Calcutta. A few days after the wedding, the barely acquainted newlyweds immigrate to America, where Ashoke has been a student.  Ashima has to learn to cope with the constant loneliness of life in a foreign country. She patiently adapts to new versions of her old habits while trying to recreate Calcutta in her Cambridge home. A year later, as she waits to give birth in a sterile white hospital ward, she imagines what it would be like to give birth in India, surrounded by fussing family members. 

Ashoke had survived a near death experience in a train wreck in his youth. It was after his recovery from this accident that Ashoke decided to pursue his professional aspirations in America and build a better life for his future family.  He had been one of the few passengers awake at the time of the crash because he was reading Nikolai Gogol's, The Overcoat.  Later, he had managed to alert the rescuers with the book and had ever since credited Nikolai Gogol for saving his life.  

In order to release the baby, the hospital requires a name for the birth certificate.  The proud new parents have never thought about a name for their son because in their Bengali tradition it is Ashima's grandmother in Calcutta who must name the baby. They decide to temporarily use a pet-name on the certificate, Gogol, in gratitude to Ashoke's life savior, Nikolai Gogol.  

When Gogol reaches kindergarten his parents decide that his pet-name is too informal and once again Ashoke looks to Nikolai Gogol for inspiration. He settles on the Bengali name, Nikhil. Young Gogol cannot understand why he needs a new name and steadfastly clings to his pet-name.  Gogol's sister, Sonia, pioneers the trend of mutilating her brother's name, and insists on calling him Goggles.  Soon, Gogol's friends in high school find their own pejorative nicknames for him. As a result, Gogol begins to hate his name, blaming his parents for giving him an uncommon, bizarre name. Simultaneously, he starts to shy away from their old-fashioned Bengali world, growing up as American as he can in suburbia.   

Ashoke tries sharing the significance of his name with Gogol on his fourteenth birthday, when he gifts him a copy of The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol, but Gogol isn't interested and so he decides against it. Before he enters Yale as an undergraduate, Gogol decides to officially change his name to Nikhil. He cannot bear the embarrassment of seeing “Gogol” on his bachelor's degree, and his parents accept his decision even though they are pained by it.  

After graduating from college, Gogol moves to New York City to study architecture, and soon secures an entry level job at an architecture firm. Maxine Ratcliffe, an elegant, all-American, art-historian, enters Gogol's life and he instantly discards his unremarkable lifestyle and adopts hers instead. Soon, his visits home become infrequent. Maxine lives at home with her parents in their luxurious, art-filled Chelsea town house, and they invite him to move in too. While enjoying the cultured life with Maxine and her parents he begins to feel even more apologetic and embarrassed by his own. He avoids introducing his parents to Maxine until Ashima calls one day and begs him to visit home because his father is leaving for Ohio on a six-month assignment. Reluctantly, he agrees to visit his parents, more out of guilt than a sense of duty.  Ashoke finally manages to tell him the story of the train wreck. Gogol is stunned that his father has kept this secret from him for so long, but he is at last able to make some peace with his name and namesake.   

With Ashoke away in Ohio Ashima learns to live alone for the first time in her life. Gogol, meanwhile, is lost in Maxine's world.  Summer passes and he returns to New York and settles back into his familiar groove with the Ratcliffes. His peace is disturbed when Ashima calls the Ratcliffes several times one night looking for him. His sister finally calls him to give him the news that their father died earlier from a heart-attack.  

Gogol flies to Cleveland to identify Ashoke's body. He spends the night alone in Ashoke's apartment, crying and apologizing to his father.  Gogol stops by a barbershop and shaves his head out of respect and mourning for his father. He mourns the loss with his mother and sister and is finally able to appreciate the little details of his father's life and his own upbringing, which earlier he had taken for granted. He also breaks up with Maxine, feeling increasingly foreign with her. 

A few years later Ashima tries to set him up with Moushumi, a childhood acquaintance and friend of the family, who had also emigrated from London to America when she was a child. Since Moushumi lives alone in New York City and has recently been jilted by her fiancé, Ashima begs him to meet her out of courtesy for her concerned family. Gogol is startled to find an elegant beauty in place of the bookworm he knew as a child.  On their second date Moushumi invites him over for a home-cooked meal, but they end up making passionate love instead. Their chemistry is perfect, and they are instantly comfortable in each other's company. Moushumi tells Gogol the story behind her devastating break-up with Graham whom she loved passionately.  She used to live in Paris and admits that if it weren't for Graham she would have never left.  Although Gogol knows that Moushumi is now in love with him, he begins to feel the first pangs of insecurity. After a year of marriage, their differences aggravate. Moushumi insists that they spend most of their time socializing with her best friends – Astrid and Donald – whom Gogol can't stand.  

Later that year Moushumi has an affair with a man she met in Paris. Gogol is completely unsuspecting until Moushumi accidentally mentions her lover's name, Pierre.  She admits to the affair, too disillusioned with married life to lie to Gogol. They're on a train to Boston when they break up, to celebrate Christmas with his family.  When they arrive in Boston, Gogol gets off the train alone.