"A Flight of Pigeons," Shyam Benegal’s melange of epic battle and intimate love story is set amidst the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, in which Indian units of the East India Company’s Army led a revolt that resulted in a popular uprising against British rule. Possessed chronicles these events through the lens of a family melodrama. After a costly massacre of British churchgoers by Indian patriots, an Anglo-Indian girl and her mother become the sole survivors. They are pursued by the rebel leader, a Pathan nobleman (Kapoor) who intends to kill the young woman and her family but instead falls passionately in love with her and abandons the fight for freedom in order to protect her family. As the rebel forces attempt to break the British siege of Delhi, the fates of each character are irrevocably changed.