Rope of Ash is set in the village of Banggul Derdap, with its rice-fields, thatched wooden houses and small mosque. It is a tale of bitter hatred, in which one family is pitted against the whole village in defence of what the family members believe to be traditional values connecting them to the earth. Over this small and intimate society prowl the violent forces of nature, including a marauding tiger.

The characters are starkly depicted, and the universal theme of the social outcast and scapegoat is interwoven with that of social change. The emotional tensions that exist and grow unchecked in a small community are precisely, yet subtly described. Death may rule but life is triumphant. Regardless of the existent tensions, the village must eventually reunite if it is to survive.