Thakur Suraj Singh lives a wealthy lifestyle with his wife; three sons - Kishore, his wife Laxmi & two children Pappu and Laali; Vijaykamal, & Mohan; and an unmarried daughter, Radha. Kishore looks after the family business, while Vijaykamal is a renowned poet, and Mohan is studying law in the city. Vijaykamal is in love with lovely Sapna, but she is forced to marry Bihari, and kills herself on the night of the marriage. Vijaykamal witnesses her death and loses his mind. The family decide to keep him under lock and key on the terrace of their house. Unable to admit Vijaykamal to a mental asylum, Suraj brings home a young courtesan, Chand, who he hopes will cure Vijaykamal, and she does succeed considerably, but is traumatized, sexually assaulted by Vijaykamal, and abused by the rest of the family.

The Verma family consists of two brothers, Vijay and Sharad (Jeetendra and Govinda respectively), Vijay's wife, Ganga (Reena Roy), and their daughter. Sharad is unmarried and is studying in college, while Vijay runs the household on his income. In college, Sharad meets with Punam (Meenakshi Sheshadhri) and both are attracted to each other. Ganga and Vijay get them married, but permit them a married life only after they complete their studies, which they do so. They are devastated to learn that Punam cannot be a mother, so Ganga lets Punam mother her child. Soon Sharad gets a job, which gets him to re-locate to another city, and there are tearful good-byes. Punam decides to keep Ganga's child with her. But Ganga has been kind to Punam and Sharad for a reason, and now the time has come for payback.