Keshav lives a poor lifestyle in a small town in India along with his ailing father, Dinanath, mother, and a much younger sister, Munni. He is an alcoholic but after the passing of his father promises to abstain completely, much to the relief of his mother as well as his sweetheart, Kamala, as well as her businessman dad, Laxmidas, who arranges his employment at his Coal Mine, and arranges for them to get married on 20Feb1958. On February 16 Laxmidas cancels the marriage as Keshav relapses and his mother threatens to leave the town, and even Kamala refuses to speak with him. Shortly thereafter Laxmidas, on his deathbed, gets Kamala to promise to marry some one else, while Keshav, blacklisted by the entire community is well on his way to self-destruction as well as endangering lives of hundreds of coal mine workers.