 Trilok drives a horse-carriage during the day as his livelihood, and at the end of which he drinks alcohol, and then returns home to his wife, Ranno, daughter, Guddi, a young son; his mom and blind dad; and his younger unemployed brother, Mangal. One day Trilok drops off a young woman at a nearby inn, and goes home. The next day, the inn-keeper tells him that the woman is dead, and he is to take her dead body for cremation, which he does so. On the way there, he is attacked by the dead woman s brother, who blames Trilok for his sister s death, and kills him. The killer is caught by the police, and imprisoned. But this does not solve the problem at late Trilok s household. The family is virtually destitute, and on the verge of starvation. The Village Elders decide that Ranno must either leave the house with her son and daughter, or alternatively marry a man who she has always looked upon as a son and a younger brother - her brother-in-law, Mangal.