 Ganga Sahay (Tarun Bose) and his wife, Rameshwari (Nirupa Roy), live together with his brother, Bishan (Inder Sen Johar), Bishan s wife, Krishnadevi (Manorama), and their maidservant, Rampyari (Leela Mishra). Ganga is dependent on Bishan. Bishan s wife is very possessive and controlling, as well as abusive to Rameshwari and Ganga. One day Bishan and his wife ask Ganga and Rameshwari to leave the house, which they do. They are very hard-working and in no time at all they set up their own business and even help out Bishan, who has not done very well in contrast. Krishnadevi and Rampyari conspire to separate Ganga and Rameshwari, and they mix a drug in a soft-drink, which makes Ganga lose his senses and fall down in a deep ravine from where his remains are never recovered. Rameshwari, who is pregnant, gives birth to a baby boy, who mysteriously disappears one day. The police are unable to trace the child and initially blame it on kidnappers, but eventually are led to believe that Rameshwari s child was kidnapped by mistake as the target was meant to be Reeta (Ameeta), whose father is very wealthy. Rampyari and Krishnadevi are behind the kidnapping of Rameshwari s child, Rameshwar (Manoj Kumar). Rampyari is instructed to drown the child in the river, but instead she gives the child to her daughter, Muniya (Sheila Ramani), and her husband Budhva (Manmohan Krishan), who are unable to conceive. They name the child Keshav, and work for Rameshwari. Rameshwari has never given up hope for her child. Krishnadevi and Bishan too have a child named Rajinder (Vijay Dutt), who they leave at the care of Rameshwari, in the hope that Rameshwari will adopt him, and make him a heir to her wealth. But Rameshwari does not do so. She instead starts taking a liking to Keshav. The children grow up, Keshav and Reeta fall in love. Reeta s mom (Lalita Pawar) initially opposses the marriage, but later admits that Keshav is a better person than Rajinder. Krishna and Bishan try to convince Reeta s mom, but that makes her all the determined as she does not like them. Meanwhile Keshav is searching for clues that may lead him to the son of Rameshwari. Taking Reeta and her mom into his confidence he decides to leave town together with Rameshwari to seek out Rampyari, who had left town, around the same day as Rameshwar went missing. So Rameshwar sets out on this mission, not knowing that this will change his outlook on life forever.