Legendary directors Wim Umboh and Sjumandjaja, decided to experiment by producing a script being written at the same time of the shooting. Mama is a complex story with two seemingly unrelated narrative threads. The first story revolves around Sanca and Anani. The second is about Ulli and Pandji, and in between the two stories is a third narrative, about Ulla, a religious prostitute and Ulli’s sister, and Suwaka.

Hamsah is always preoccupied with his business while his wife is busy with her social life. Their daughters; Tuti and Lina, are neglected by them. Lina suffers the most as she is paralyzed, and the doctor does not think that she will improve. So a private teacher is hired for Lina, a university student named Arman. They get along well as Arman is also suffering from the loss of his mother and sister, who died during the revolution. The seeds of love begin to grow, but it happens that Tuti likes him too. Then Arman resolves problem by reuniting Tuti with her ex-boyfriend, Anwar. In the end, Hamzah and his wife realise their mistakes, while Lina and Arman find their “private palace.”

Two sisters, Hanifah and Latifah/Ipah have different attitudes toward life in Jakarta. While Hanifah is content working as a teacher, Ipah, who works as a shopkeeper, is obsessed with living a high life. She leaves her boyfriend, Adi, feeling that her sister’s way of thinking is too conservative, and changes her name to Eva. Eva then becomes a runway model and gets famous. She has an affair with an older man named Abas, gets pregnant, has an abortion and becomes a high class prostitute. Meanwhile, her ex-boyfriend, Adi, has an affair with Lily, Abas’ wife. One day, she meets again with Adi who is looking for a prostitute for his friend. Offended, Eva stabs Adi. She is then sentenced to 18 years in prison. Her father and her sister, Hanifah, come to the court and give her a mukena (a kind of hijab used by female Muslims for praying) before she goes to prison.