Fires from Kili is the story of Lanka who grows up into a woman in the tumultuous times of open economy, introduced to Sri Lanka in the late 1970s. The story progresses through as insurrection and civil war. On the one hand, metaphorically, it is the story of Sri Lanka with its ever-persistent issues of language, education, health and upward social mobility – all of which are inseparable from politics; on the other, it is the pulsing story of a girl growing into womanhood entangled in a loveless marriage.