 Shankarlal s dying wife asks his younger brother, Chandrashekhar, to marry an orphan named Laxmi, to which Chandrashekhar reluctantly agrees. They do get married, and soon have three children, a girl and two boys. Chandrashekhar s elder brother, Madhu, triumphantly returns home as the local District Collector, & marries wealthy Chamanlal s daughter, Shobha, while Ravi is romancing his beautiful neighbor, Neelu. Things look pretty good for this family, when the mill where Chandrashekhar is employed with goes on strike. The mill-owner sells the mill to Rani Padmavati, who first of all wants Chandrashekhar to be fired before she can even consider the workers  demands. The workers go on an indefinite hunger strike until Chandrashekhar decides to quit his job and re-locates to the city to look for work. In the meantime, misunderstandings crop up between Shobha and the rest of the family, and she and Madhu leave the house to live with Chamanlal. Chandrashekhar is unable to find any employment as Rani Padmavati refuses to give him a reference and on the contrary uses her influence to ensure that he never gets employed. Crestfallen and defeated, Chandrashekhar returns home to find out that the Rani had colluded with the local money-lenders and has taken over their land and property. Then the police arrest Chandrashekhar on the complaint filed by the Rani on the charge of stealing from his former employer. On the verge of losing her ill son, Laxmi, now penniless, must now find out why Rani Padmavati has taken it upon herself to ruin this family,