The movie starts with the marriage of Radha Devi and Gopinath (Nutan and Sunil Dutt). They start on their honeymoon and have to cross a river on a ferry boat. While they are in the middle of the river, Gopinath suddenly begins to hallucinate about a whirlpool and shouts that they are going to die. Despite Radha and the boatman's reassurances, Gopinath cannot be calmed, so Radha asks the boatman to take them to the nearby shore. Once they reach there, Gopinath starts to say things about Bibiji and a palace that should be there. Radha gets confused and follows him.
They meet with an old man who tells them that Bibiji and Gopi are long dead and their palace is now in ruins. Gopinath asks about Gowri, the shepherd girl. The old man tells them that she is still alive and would come daily to the graves of Gopi and Radha. While they are talking, an old lady comes there and Gopi recognizes her as Gowri. They go to her and she too recognizes them and tells them that they took rebirth to live together in this life. She starts to narrate their story.
Gopi was a poor orphan living with his grandmother in a village on the banks of Ganges. He carries passengers on his boat across the river for a living. Radha was a daughter of a zamindar and studies in the city college. Gopi carries her across the river and gives her a rose every day. Radha finds his innocence lively and maintains a platonic relation with him. He teaches her a song which makes her the winner of singing competition in the college. Gowri (Jamuna), a shepherd girl has feelings for Gopi and always thinks that they are going to marry one day despite Gopi's disinterest for her. Meanwhile, Rambabu (Deven Varma), Radha's classmate gets attracted to her and starts pursuing. He writes a letter to Radha expressing his love. Radha gets angry for that and sends Gopi to teach him a lesson. But her step mother finds that letter and thinks that Radha is also interested in Rambabu. She sends her brother and Radha's uncle (Pran) to settle this matter.
He meets with Rambabu and finds out that he is the heir of a very rich and respectable Roy family and he sincerely wants to marry Radha. He settles their marriage and Radha's parents feel happy about it. Meanwhile, Radha starts to acknowledge her feelings for Gopi and gets shocked to know that her parents settled her marriage with Rambabu. She tries to explain, but her father thinks that she was already in love with Rambabu and there is nothing to discuss. She goes to Gopi and tells him about her betrothal and he receives it passively. He indirectly indicates that whatever their feelings for each other are, class difference wouldn't allow any sort of relation between them. Radha accepts her fate and marries Rambabu and leaves her village.
As fate has different plans, she comes back to her father's house two months later as a widow. Everybody including her parents, uncle, Gopi and Gowri are shocked and feel bad to see her like that. Her father who was already ill, can't bear to see her in that condition and has a massive heart attack and loses his voice. Radha's uncle tries to molest Gowri, but Gopi comes between and saves her. This leads to acrimony between Gopi and him. Gopi continues to meet Radha to console her and to give her courage to live. But Gowri becomes irritated with their relation and fights loudly with Gopi regarding that. This leads to rumors in the village of Radha's affair with Gopi and Radha's mother gets disturbed. Even Radha's in-laws reject to give her share in their property as she was unfaithful to her husband.
At last these rumors reach Radha's ears and she goes to Gopi to talk about them. She gets surprised to see how Gopi made his little hut a temple for her. She realizes that he loved her dearly and asks him to elope with her. Gopi hesitates, but she tells him that she no longer cares about the society who has no sympathy for her. They start crossing the river and her uncle follows them with villagers. Gowri, feeling repentant for spreading rumors, finally agrees to become Radha's uncle's mistress in return for stopping the chase. He agrees and stops the villagers, but a whirlpool takes Radha and Gopi in.
In the present day, Gowri feels happy to see them as a couple and dies in the hands of Gopinath.
