Fire delves into the controversial film by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, the first on lesbian love to have a commercial release in India. Set in a contemporary middle-class Hindu household in the heart to Delhi, Fire is the story of Radha and Sita, the wives of two brothers, who fall in love with one another. The film premiered to critical acclaim in 1996, travelled the international circuit, and was finally distributed in India in 1998. But a few weeks after the film's release activists of the Hindu Right unleashed their fury upon the film; rampaging mobs vandalized theatres and attacked the film for promoting 'perversion' and insulting Hindu religion. The protests were resisted with equal vigour, resulting in post-independent India's first public debate on homosexuality.

Shohini Ghosh's book contends that Fire is a queer classic for both cinematic and historic reasons, mapping its achievements against the larger socio-political developments that were unfolding in India at the turn of the new millennium. The incendiary controversy over the film gave queer sexuality and activism a heightened visibility in India, and most importantly, 'taught' mainstream audiences to read 'queerly.'