Hari Mondal(Om Puri) is a poor village farmer who lives in the remote Bengal village of Giripur in Birbhum district with his wife, two sons, brother, an old widowed aunt Kalidashi (Gita Sen)and her daughter Panchi. The movie opens in the mid sixties when the Naxalbari uprising is spreading across Bengal and oppressed farmers are being united by youths who believe in communism and a socialist republic. Hari and his brother Bolai (Noni Ganguly) are Borgadars, land tillers who plough and harvest the crop on land owned by Jotdars. Bibhutibhushan Ganguly (Victor Banerjee) is the young jotdar who has just lost his father and now wishes to employ new laws on his Borgadars ensuring his greatest profit while the poor farmer languishes in poverty. His estate agent Karmakar(Rajen Tarafdar)does most of his dirty dealings on his behalf that include keeping the poor villagers scared and in command. Hari's sister is about to get married and Hari asks Bibhutibhushan for a loan.