Max Lowe is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of finding himself. Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport.

The story of an old peasant,Bancharam (Mitra),who defeats the tyrannical landlord Chhakari (Dey).Inheriting a dry patch of land, Bancharam converts it into a fabulous garden.The British magistrate supports him when Chhakari attempts to acquire the garden, after which he dies. Chhakari's son Nakari tries a new stratagem: he promises Bancharam Rs 400 every month provided Bancharam bequeaths his garden to the landowner after his death. Bancharam agrees but amazingly becomes healthier with every passing day, repeatedly promising to die but failing to do so.

Gangacharan is the new Brahmin of a village, where he assumes various duties: teaching, organizing religious events, and trying to prevent epidemics. But in that year 1943, war is raging (as reminded by the planes occasionally heard flying over the countryside), and a major famine is under way. As food shortages reach catastrophic proportions, Gangacharan attempts to preserve his privileged situation, while his generous wife, Ananga, conversely tries to help and support the community.

Raja Roychowdhury and his nephew Santu travel to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to solve the mystery behind the continuous disappearance of researchers at a remote island inhabited only by a primitive tribe.

A pre-teen servant boy dies of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning on a cold winter night in the kitchen. The household is suddenly plunged into psychological turmoil, torn between guilt and fear of a police investigation and the resulting scandal. As events unfold, the employer and his wife reveal their petty, hypocritical selves.

Sen Gupta, a doctor who only treats upper-class patients, is forced to confront his own moral and medical beliefs as he discovers rural India during an unexpected stop at a village. He finds a breathless man lying on the side of the road. With little sympathy, the doctor sends him back to his own village for treatment. When Dr. Gupta discovers that the villages want a witch doctor to treat the man, he attends the exorcism and is shocked. A transformation of the cold city man then follows.