Rural melodrama about Durga, an adolescent child of nature, living with her aged mother Heera. Unable to get the medicine required to prevent her mother's death, one misfortune after another befalls the heroine in spite of the sympathies of the newly arrived village doctor, Jawahar.

The love story between the beautiful village belle Radha and Kamal, the son of the village zamindar who wants to be a great poet. The zamindar sends his son to the city, where Kamal becomes a noted novelist and playwright, while Radha is persecuted by the zamindar and his henchman Banwari. She feigns suicide but in fact goes to join her beloved in the city (on the same train as the now repentant father). When she eventually reaches Kamal's house, she hears him declaring his love to a woman. Unaware that he is merely reading lines from his latest play.

Nirmala (Devika Rani) is a modern girl - young, beautiful, dressed in the latest fashions, attends college, and is even the only female in an all-male class. She doesn't take second place to the men, besting all but one in the annual exams. She tied with Ramdas (Ashok Kumar). But, at the same time she is tied to the age-old culture, traditions and religion. She yearns for a husband and for motherhood. And this conflict forms the crux of the story.

Two widowed sisters thwart a love match when they try to arrange marriages for their respective children.