The second wife of kind-hearted,and generous Amirchand Bhargav is Durgadevi Bhargav (Nadira), who is exactly the opposite of her late husband. She rules over her household, alongwith her brother, Makhanlal (Madan Puri), with an iron hand, and also over her step-daughter, Shanti (Vidya Sinha), who she treats worse than her servants. Due to her brutality, there is always a dearth of servants in her household, and hence most of the work must be done by Shanti. Her other daughter is Roopa (Moushumi Chatterjee), is bad-tempered and spoiled. When a former employee of Amirchand, Ratanlal (Shreeram Lagoo) approaches Durgadevi for marrying her two sons to her two daughters, she humiliates him and turns him away. Unperturbed by this, he asks the assistance of his two sons, Ram (Sanjeev Kumar) and Laxman (Shashi Kapoor), so that the marriages can take place, and at the same time Durgadevi and Makhanlal be taught a lesson.