Bumbling kidnappers find themselves held hostage by their kidnappee and her family.

An elderly teacher relocates to Vaitagwadi, a village of uninterested and idle people. He hopes to reopen the school and educate the village folk but faces many obstacles.

This is the journey of Sindhutai Sapkal, a poor village girl who grew up tending buffaloes while craving an education, but her unsympathetic mother had her married off to an older man when she was 12 years old. What could have been a predictable life took a much different course when Sindhutai was unjustly accused of carrying another man's child and was thrown out of the house by her husband and his family.

Laxmi, whose mother dies during childbirth, must face various ups and downs in life as her father considers her a bad omen and blames her for her mother's death.