Content Warning: Honor mentions anti-gay bias and ableism and depicts misogyny, racism, religious discrimination, sexual assault of children, and violence (including burning and stoning).

Honor starts with a fictional article by journalist Shannon Carpenter about Meena, a Hindu woman who is suing her two brothers, Govind and Arvind, for burning her and honor killing her Muslim husband, Abdul.

Protagonist Smita Agarwal has just arrived in India. She has come to help her friend Shannon Carpenter, a fellow journalist who had an accident and is currently in the hospital. Smita covers the gender beat for their publication, and her job requires that she travel. Although she is Indian, she has been away from India for 20 years, and her Hindi is out of practice. She arrives with little luggage and looks for the driver whom Shannon sent to pick her up from the airport. Smita is picked up by Mohan, who is annoyed that she thinks he is a driver. He is an IT executive at the successful Tata corporation. As they leave the airport, Smita looks out the car window at Mumbai.