A love tragedy featuring a policeman, Ganpat (Modak) and a prostitute, Mainal (Hublikar). Ganpat saves Maina from a police raid on a brothel and they fall in love. Her reputation and sense of guilt resist his attempts to rehabilitate her. Ganpat's respectable middle-class mother (Sundarabai) symbolizes all that Maina would like to be, but she is arrested for murdering her evil uncle and refuses Ganpat's offer to release her from prison.

Radical journalist Diwakar clashes with his traditional father and a scheming politician, Vithalrao, who seizes his newspaper. Disgusted, Diwakar leaves home. His wealthy girlfriend, Nalini, initially supports Vithalrao but later campaigns for Diwakar, who represents slum-dwellers in an election. Despite her father's support, Nalini urges voters for Diwakar. Nalini wins, but Diwakar's loss is depicted as a moral victory, critiquing middle-class materialism.