Plot
In the pre-independence era in rural Bengal, Aniruddh Roy Choudhary, a 22-year-old barrister, returns from London to his family's native village of Tulsipur, intending to marry his childhood sweetheart, Saudamini Bhaumik. Meanwhile, Aniruddh's best friend, Saurabh, is going to marry Sampoorna, a Bengali Hindu girl. Sampoorna's parents, Sundaram and Devoleena, and her widowed aunt Sumati, decide to raise money for her dowry by marrying off Sumati's very young daughter Bondita to an elderly man.
On Bondita's wedding day, Aniruddh finds out about the planned child marriage and tries unsuccessfully to stop it. When the elderly groom drops dead midway through the wedding, his relatives declare Bondita a widow and demand that she perform sati . In a desperate attempt to save her life, Aniruddh marries Bondita, and shocks his family by bringing her home as his wife.
Saudamini, with the assistance of Aniruddh's father Binoy, who wants Aniruddh to return to London and practice law there, plots to separate the newlyweds. On the other hand, Aniruddh's uncle Trilochan accepts Bondita, and becomes fond of her.
After a con man tricks Bondita into helping him, Aniruddh sends her back to her mother, where she is seen as bad luck, abused, and finally sold to a brothel in Kolkata. When Aniruddh finds out, he races to retrieve her, only to be beaten up by the guards and stabbed by the madam. Saurabh rescues him, and the two return in disguise to rescue all of the girls in the brothel.
Meanwhile, Trilochan discovers Saudamini's plot, and she pushes him over, leading to his paralysis from head injuries. When Aniruddh also discovers the plot, Saudamini is expelled from the household. Bondita cures Trilochan's paralysis and is finally accepted by the whole family.
Some time later, Aniruddh, Binoy, and Trilochan visit Sir John Greenwood, the village chief, with various requests. Aniruddh wants permission to send Bondita to school, while Binoy and Trilochan want permission to build a factory and for the village farmers to stop growing indigo. There they encounter Saudamini, now married to Sir Greenwood and calling herself "Betty". Sir Greenwood, at Saudamini's urging, insults them, finally challenging Aniruddh to a competition. If Sir Greenwood loses, he will grant all their requests and resign from his position; if Aniruddh loses, he must become Greenwood's slave for the rest of his life. Aniruddh accepts the challenge and ultimately wins the competition.
Sir Greenwood leaves Tulsipur forever, rejecting Saudamini when she wants to accompany him. In revenge, she kidnaps Bondita and locks her in a chemical plant. When Saurabh dies rescuing her, Saudamini is arrested for murder. Saurabh's father, Premlal, blames Aniruddh for Saurabh's death, and tries to kill him, but Bondita exposes the plot and Premlal is also sent to prison. Devoleena and Sundaram contrive for the widowed Sampoorna to marry Binoy.
Soon after, Aniruddh meets a revolutionary named Manorama, who wants Aniruddh to pretend to marry her as part of a plot. Aniruddh, who is concerned that Bondita has been neglecting her studies to focus on being a good wife, agrees. Manorama fakes her death shortly afterward in a revolutionary operation making realise Bondita about the dreams of becoming lawyer.
Then, in support of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, Aniruddh and Bondita nullify their marriage. When the angered villagers put a price on Bondita's head, Aniruddh sends her to a hostel in Siliguri for her safety. Sampoorna and Devoleena help a villager find and kidnap her, but Aniruddh is able to rescue her in time.
Bondita's great-aunt, Kalindi Das, arrives and takes Bondita to her village of Krishna Nagar. As a young woman, Kalindi had been engaged to Trilochan, but after she violated custom to care for him when he was sick, Trilochan refused to marry her. Kalindi, who has remained single for the rest of her life, carries a grudge against the Roy Choudharys, and attempts to take it out on Bondita and Aniruddh.
Kalindi arranges for Bondita to marry Chandrachur Banerjee, who is infatuated with her. A disguised Aniruddh rescues Bondita and sends her to London to fulfill her dream of becoming a barrister. Kalindi substitutes Bondita's cousin, Tupur, as the bride, and Chandrachur reluctantly accepts under pressure from his parents.
8 years later
Bondita, now grown up, returns to Tulsipur as a barrister. Aniruddh refuses to see her because of her relation to Kalindi, whom the Roy Choudharys have sworn enmity against. Dismayed, Bondita travels to Krishna Nagar, where Tupur tells her that Kalindi had agreed to make peace with the Roy Choudharys until Aniruddh concealed a bomb among gifts to her.
Bondita refuses to believe this and returns to Tulsipur in disguise to find out the truth. There she encounters Binoy, now mentally disabled after the feuding people of Krishna Nagar poisoned and attacked them. When Bondita is blamed for an attack on the Roy Choudharys orchestrated by Chandrachur, Aniruddh fails to support her, and Bondita cuts him off. Aniruddh realizes he has fallen in love with Bondita and confesses his feelings to her; she forgives him, they convince their families to end the feud, and the two remarry.
On the wedding night, Chandrachur, still obsessed with Bondita, plans to sexually assault her. When Bondita's cousin Tapur discovers his attentions, he assaults her instead. Aniruddh catches him and accidentally pushes him off a cliff; to preserve Tapur's dignity, he keeps the assault a secret, even when arrested for murdering Chandrachur.
Bondita, resolved to defend Aniruddh in court, investigates and discovers the truth of what happened. At her urging, Tapur agrees to testify in court, but is scared off by public prosecutor Subodh Chatterjee. Bondita discovers Chandrachur, still alive; at first he escapes before she can take him to court, but she tricks him into confessing to all his crimes, including poisoning Binoy and the bombing blamed on Aniruddh. Chandrachur is arrested, Bondita wins the case, Aniruddh is found innocent, and Aniruddh and Bondita finally consummate their marriage.
In Bondita's next case, she defends a pregnant widow against her in-laws. Her opponent is Aniruddh's youngest brother, Batuk, now an advocate. He was sent to Italy to avoid the feud between Tulsipur and Krishna Nagar, and blames Bondita for the separation from his family. When Bondita gives a speech encouraging widow remarriage, attendees revolt, and the widow's in-laws take the opportunity to drag her off. Bondita chases after them, but they throw her into a river; Aniruddh rescues her, but is lost himself, despite Batuk's attempts to save him.
Batuk, now angrier than ever, wants to kill Bondita; when he finds out she is pregnant, he decides to instead wait until the baby is born to seize it and throw her out of the house. With the help of an unwitting Trilochan, he disguises himself as Aniruddh, to Bondita's gradually increasing suspicion. Meanwhile, the real Aniruddh is being cared for by a stranger who found him paralyzed and unable to remember his address.
Six months later, Bondita, having won the pregnant widow's case, realises that the person living with her is actually Batuk. Before she can set out in search of the real Aniruddh, she goes into labor, and gives birth to twin girls. Batuk kidnaps the twins and takes them home to prepare to abscond to Italy with them, locking the door to keep out a desperate Bondita. Outside the door, Bondita begs him to return her babies, until Batuk drops a lighted match on her, intending to burn her alive.
Arriving in the nick of time, a recovered Aniruddh appears, saves Bondita, and breaks down the door. After Aniruddh throws out Batuk, Bondita and Aniruddh take their newborn twins before a statue of Durga, vowing that their children will also become barristers and fight to overcome social evils.
