Two young girls from a boarding school, Nirmala a.k.a. Nimmy and Sally decide to slip away during a school picnic, feeling they are not wanted at school or at home. They glimpse the world’s resentments personified in a stern, mean teacher who oversees this particular outing, Devika. The escape leads them to find temporary sanctuary in a convent for the night and then in a youth hostel, where they assume the disguise of traveling college students. In the meantime, Devika loses her job, an event that adds a sharp undercurrent to the girls’ already fragile situation.
As the two girls piece together a way to support themselves with odd jobs, they befriend a stranger, Harisankar — Hari — who Nimmy grows to trust and even fall for. Sally watches with jealousy as Hari’s influence over Nimmy grows; at first she tries to shield her friend, but she eventually steps back, deciding not to stand in the way of Nimmy’s feelings. The trio’s uneasy new bond complicates their already delicate world.
Nimmy opens up to Hari about her life, and Hari reveals his own troubling backstory: he is a suspended bank manager who was duped into giving a dead man’s wife money from the bank, a scam that ended with his suspension. Since then, he has been receiving a fixed monthly sum by post, a secret that helps explain his questionable past and his current precarious position. As Nimmy shares more of her life, Hari discovers a photo album that eventually shows Devika to be the architect of his troubles, the very swindler Nimmy and Sally are trying to outmaneuver.
This revelation steers Hari toward Devika, and he falls further for her, promising to help her regain her job by leveraging his knowledge of the girls’ whereabouts. He hints at freeing himself from suspension, and he uses Nimmy’s affection to his advantage, treating it as if she should understand that her love is simply a passing infatuation. Nimmy, trusting him, agrees to a plan that would see her return to school life, and Hari proposes a mediation with Devika to resolve the tangled ties binding them all. During the tense meeting, Sally’s anger flares up toward Devika for reasons that feel unclear, and she storms out, refusing to go back. Nimmy agrees to try to persuade her again, but Hari then drops a bombshell: Devika is his fiancée, a revelation that shatters the fragile balance between the girls and their mentor.
Back at the hostel, Sally runs away once more, pleading with Nimmy to join her. Nimmy declines, and the two share a heartfelt, intimate goodbye. Sally eventually returns, breaking into Nimmy’s room only to discover a devastating scene: Nimmy is on the cusp of taking her own life. The two girls seize each other in a final, painful embrace, torn between loyalty and despair.
The following morning brings a grim tableau: Hari, Devika, and the school authorities discover the two girls lying in bed, dead. Hari’s face registers a haunting, unsettled question—What have I done?—as the weight of the events settles over the campus and the lives already touched by a cascade of choices and consequences.
