Devastated to learn that their only child, a son, has been killed by muggers in New York City, former Headmaster B.B. Pradhan and his wife, Parvati, grieve. With their son dead, there is no income coming in, so they rent out a room, in their Shivaji Park (Bombay) apartment to a budding Bollywood actress, Sujata Suman, who has been having an illicit affair with the only son (Vilas) of a politician named Gajanan Chitre. Vilas lacks the guts to tell his father that he is in love and would like to marry Sujata, and hence puts off any marriage plans. They do get intimate and as a result Sujata gets pregnant. When Pradhan finds out, he offers to take Sujata to meet Gajanan with the hope that he will permit her to become his daughter-in-law. But Gajanan not only refuses, he also threatens them, he warns them of dire consequences if Sujata does not abort the child, and moves away to another town.