The Whole Sky scratches the surface of the traditional joint family household to reveal a pecking order in which the young suffer the brunt of the oppression experienced by generations before them - and the young women are at the very bottom of the heap. Under the authority of the father and the supervision of the mother, the household is run by the eldest daughter-in-law. Younger brides, taken in according to the attractiveness of their dowries, are expected to hold their own (and hold their tongues) under strenuous conditions imposed on them by the older women.
Into such a situation walks Prabha, a young college graduate (unusual for tradition-bound North Indian families) who is to be the bride of Samar. The marriage having been arranged against his wishes, Samar - out of repressed anger and almost pathological personal shyness - rejects his new bride, leaving her isolated within the family. Her best efforts to please the others are confounded by the other women, who make her the butt of ridicule and heavy-handed discipline. Prabha's misery eventually turns to defiance, and the film ends with a hint (only) that she has managed to awaken Samar to feelings of unity with her.