Midnight's Children Summary

Our protagonist, born at the decisive moment when India is liberated from British colonization, is now approaching his thirty-first birthday and feels his body deteriorating. Concerned about his inevitable end, he urgently narrates his life story to his faithful companion, Padma. His tale begins three decades prior to his birth, with his grandfather, a physician named Aadam Aziz, treating the woman who would become his grandmother, Naseem. Over time, they marry and start a family in Agra. As political unrest unfolds, Aadam shelters a man named Nadir Khan, who falls in love with Aadam's daughter Mumtaz, whom he marries in secret. When their marriage remains unconsummated for two years, Nadir Khan flees after Mumtaz's sister exposes his hiding place. Heartbroken Mumtaz then marries Ahmed Sinai, a merchant, and changes her name to Amina.

Amina moves to Delhi with Ahmed, and becomes pregnant. A fortune-teller's prophecy about her unborn son is cryptic yet compelling. Following a terrorist attack on Ahmed's factory, they move to Bombay and purchase a house from a British man, William Methwold. On the eve of India's independence, Amina and another woman, Vanita, both give birth to sons at exactly midnight. The newborns' identities are swapped by a guilt-ridden midwife, giving the poor child a rich life and the wealthy child a poor one. Consequently, our protagonist's birth coincides with India's independence, drawing significant public attention. As he grows older, he discovers he possesses telepathic powers, as do all the children born within the first hour of India's independence.

Our protagonist's life takes a drastic turn when a hospital visit reveals that he is not biologically related to his parents. Following this revelation, after a series of family tragedies and political upheavals, Amina takes her children to Pakistan. Over the years, our protagonist loses his telepathic abilities but gains an extraordinary sense of smell. After a war kills his entire family, he loses his memory and is conscripted into the military. Later, he regains most of his memory and escapes back to India with the help of one of the magical children, Parvati-the-witch. After several heartbreaking events and political turbulence, he eventually marries Padma, his constant companion and listener, on his thirty-first birthday, which coincides with India's thirty-first Independence Day. He foresees his own death on that day, dissolving into countless particles of dust.