The film begins with a sea storm that sinks a ship leaving a child as the sole survivor. In another scene a king is shown waiting for his grandchild. He dies still waiting but bequeaths his property to his grandchild, Shankar. Thakur, a kindhearted, widowed landlord, lives a wealthy lifestyle with his son Ramesh, daughter Roopa and an adopted child, Shankar. Ramesh hates Shankar and openly mistreats him.Years pass by and Thakur dies. A grown-up Ramesh (Pran) frequents a beautiful courtesan, drinks alcohol, and continues to abuse and mercilessly beat Shankar (Dilip Kumar), who bears this in silence. Meanwhile, over the years, Shankar and Roopa (Waheeda Rehman) have fallen in love with each other. When Ramesh finds out, he has Shankar severely beaten and thrown off a cliff. Ramesh then arranges Roopa's marriage to a wealthy man, Satish (Rehman), while he continues to romance the courtesan Tara Bai (Rani) and signs over his entire estate and home to her.A few years later, Shankar returns as the wealthy king of Belapur. He is fully prepared to compromise with Ramesh and propose to Roopa. He finds out that nothing has changed, however. Ramesh, though rendered penniless by Tara, still hates Shankar. Satish is engaged to Roopa and a marriage date has been fixed. Shankar's love is now replaced by vengeance and hate, and all he can think of is destroying the lives of Ramesh, Roopa, Satish and his sister, Mala (Shyama), and he devises several plans to destroy their lives