Shankar (Dilip Kumar) and Kamla (Madhubala) are childhood sweethearts who are unfortunately separated at a young age. They meet years later and rekindle their romance, but Shankar has a lot of dark secrets. When they are about to be married, a man shows up and confronts Shankar about his "wife", and asks him how he can marry again and cheat his first "wife".

It is then revealed that Shankar's mother, in a bout of greed, tricked him into "marrying" a mentally challenged rich woman. The insane woman is kept locked up in a dungeon. Kamla is hurt that Shankar hid all this from her and goes back to her village, despite Shankar's desperate pleas for her to stay with him. The lovers are heartbroken without each other.

Finally, when she returns to Shankar, Kamla finds out that his entire mansion was accidentally burned by the insane woman, who herself was a victim in the fire accident. She goes in search of Shankar, but realises that he was blinded in the fire. However, they declare their love for each other and are happily united.