Based on Umrao Jaan Ada by Mirza Hadi Ruswa.

Following a passionate encounter with King Dushyanta (Chandramohan), the comely Shakuntala (Jayashree) finds herself pregnant and rejected by the royal court. She gives birth in a forest to a son which she names Bharat (Kumar Ganesh). When the King tracks his former lover down and tries to take her back, she flatly refuses him.

Thakur is a proud and dignified man who loves his only daughter, Chanda, dearly. His wife and he receive a proposal for Chanda from the house of a lawyer and his wife. While Thakur accepts the proposal, he makes it clear to the lawyer that he is unable to afford any dowry. After the wedding, Chanda's mother-in-law starts harassing Chanda about her lack of dowry.

Gopal's sister believes that she knows what is best for him. But a series of events causes turbulence in the family.

Tired of his life, a boat man gets hit in the eye by a bullet, blinding him by a young lady. They soon fall in love each other, but this is not liked by the older lady as she wants young to marry another man.

During the Japanese invasion of China, a young Indian doctor joins the Chinese resistance, meets and courts a Chinese girl, cures a virulent plague, and is captured by a Japanese platoon...