A devout upper-class Hindu has a vision in a dream that his daughter-in-law is the human incarnation of the Goddess Kali and begins worshipping her.

Kanchan, all of eight years old, is always up to pranks and mischief in his village home. He finds his father a cruel demon who keeps his mother oppressed and imprisoned. In his dreams, the big city is El Dorado, until he reaches there.

Set in 1950s Calcutta against the partition of India, the plot follows two rival factions born out of the divided leadership of the radical IPTA theater movement. Amidst their intense creative differences, a romance develops between two uprooted refugees, Bhrigu and Anusuya.