Ram Narain has always been a womanizer and an habitual alcoholic. Even after his marriage to Achala, he has not changed his habits, but got even worse and is now in debt. One night in a drunken stupor, he falls down the stairs and passes away, leaving Achala and her young son, Shyam, to face life by themselves. Achala takes help of her friend, Noormohammed, and both go and live with him and his daughter, Salma. Years pass by, Shyam and Salma have both grown up. Shyam is a top-scoring student in college, and has even obtained a scholarship. He has many admirers, and one of them is rich and wealthy, Rekha Rai. One day Shyam finds out that elderly Noormohamed is still doing manual work to support them, and he decides to take over, dropping out of college. He runs into problems; Rekha is to marry Deepak; and unable to find a solution to them, he takes to drinking, just like his dad, little realizing that this will only lead him to the path of self-destruction.