English, August follows the story of Agastya Sen (Rahul Bose), also known as "English, August", who speaks and thinks in English. A lover of poetry, he enjoys listening to Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, rock, and jazz, and reading Marcus Aurelius. He is an Indian Administrative Service Officer, part of the most influential cadre of civil servants in India.
Agastya is sent for a year of training to Madna, the hottest town in the country, where he experiences culture shock and a language barrier despite being in his own country (his mother tongue is Bengali). Feeling like a foreigner, he must navigate this new environment and survive.
Surrounded by eccentric characters like Srivastava, the pompous head bureaucrat, his wife Malti, the town's fashion and cultural leader, Sathe, a local pothead and cartoonist, Kumar, the Police Superintendent and lover of porn films, and Vasant, the world's worst cook, Agastya finds himself in a provincial setting with only his fantasies, daydreams, and "self-abuse" as means of revolt and escape.
As he escapes from the heat into his secret world of erotic fantasy and contemplation, Agastya navigates the challenges of Madna with the only paddle he can find, trying to find his place in this unfamiliar environment.