This paper tries to delve into the folds of Jaishree Misra’s novel Ancient Promises expounding the condition of the protagonist Janaki, who was forced by the irrevocable fate to let the zest of her girlhood be displaced by a deplorable womanhood. The paper also tries to elucidate, through the ambivalent stance of the protagonist, the essentialist notions of love, family and belongingness. The paper views the novel as a seminal text, touching with disconcerting openness on the Keralite upper-class notions on marriage, family and divorce.