''Before the Rains'' is set in 1930s Malabar District of the Madras Presidency of British Raj, against the backdrop of a growing nationalist movement. An idealistic young Indian man, T.K. Neelan (Rahul Bose) finds himself torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty to tradition when people in his village learn of an affair between his British boss and close friend Henry Moores (Linus Roache) and a married village woman Sajani (Nandita Das).