Two intertwining stories of women in India. The framing narrative is an unnamed woman who travels to India in the present day (1970s) to learn more about the experiences of her step-grandmother, Olivia, during the days of the British Raj in the 1920s.

A dense, occasionally impressionistic and highly symbolic look at the life of a wealthy industrialist, Mehring, who buys a farm in Apartheid-era South Africa as a tax write-off. He's the "Conservationist" of the title, telling himself that he's conserving nature via his lifestyle choice while actually conserving the foundations of Apartheid.

An academic, Edwin Fisher, spends a week at the seaside while coming to terms with the breakdown of his marriage soon after the death of their son. While Fisher deals with the unexpected intervention of his in-laws on his holiday and hangs out in pubs with his fellow boarding house guests, his backstory unfolds via flashback.