Meena (Mala Sinha) and Kamla (Nirupa Roy) are two daughters of a wealthy Nainital resident. While Kamla lives with her established attorney husband, Ashok (Ashok Kumar), in Mumbai, Meena is in love with artist-singer Rajendra (Sunil Dutt). When Kamla comes to Nainital for her delivery, she comes to know of Meena's affair and plans to get her married to Rajendra. Ashok however, is totally unaware of this fact.
Before Kamla can do this, she dies after falling off a cliff near her father's home. Afraid that her sister's children will be ill-treated by a stepmother, Meena is compelled to marry Ashok. Ashok does not know about her love affair with Rajendra. For a while things go well, until she meets Rajendra again. He follows her to Mumbai, and they begin meeting secretly.
One day, Meena is caught by Leela (Shashikala), a woman who claims to be Rajendra's wife and who begins blackmailing her. Caught between Rajendra's deception and Leela's hounding, Meena's life comes to a crisis, and she is forced to make a choice between Rajendra and Ashok.
The movie examines the conflict of a married woman who is caught between her feelings for her lover and her duty to her husband and family.