Raju [Dev Anand] is a freelance guide who earns his living by taking tourists to historic sites. The film opens with his release from jail, and the story unfolds largely through flashbacks. One day, a wealthy and aging archaeologist named Marco arrives in the city with his young wife Rosie [Waheeda Rehman], the daughter of a courtesan. Marco hires Raju to guide him as he explores caves outside the city, and he discovers a new cave while paying little attention to Rosie.
While Marco devotes himself to the cave, Raju accompanies Rosie and grows to admire her dancing skill and her innocent spirit. He learns Rosie’s background as the daughter of a prostitute and how she has earned respectability as Marco’s wife, at a heavy personal cost. She has had to give up her dancing, which Marco finds unacceptable. Rosie tries to end her life by poison, and when Marco returns from the caves and finds her alive, he confronts her with anger, insisting that her supposed suicide was a ruse meant to attract attention. He claims that if she truly wanted to die, she would have taken more sleeping pills.
Back at the caves, Rosie discovers that Marco is spending time with a native tribal girl. Rosie’s anger grows, and she leaves the caves, even considering another attempt on her life. Raju consoles her, telling her that suicide is a sin and that she should live to pursue her dreams. She ultimately decides to abandon the relationship with Marco, but she now needs a place to stay, and Raju brings her home.
Rosie’s status in Raju’s community as a dancer, linked to the historical association of classical dance with the life of courtesans, creates friction. His mother [Leela Chitnis] and her brother push for Rosie to be expelled, and Raju’s world begins to crumble as his business suffers and friends drift away. Yet he refuses to cast Rosie out. As he supports her, Rosie begins a singing and dancing career, and she rises to stardom, while Raju himself slides into gambling and drinking. Marco returns, hoping to win Rosie back, and his agent asks Rosie to release some jewelry from a safe deposit box. Raju, feeling possessive, forges Rosie’s name on the release to prevent Marco from reclaiming the jewels, a decision that later lands him in trouble.
Rosie grows distant, and tensions rise when Rosie tortures him with a lack of affectionate attention, even as she demands that he leave her room. They argue about whether a man should live off a woman’s earnings, and Raju insists that Rosie’s success is the result of his own efforts and devotion. When Rosie learns of the forgery, Raju is convicted of forgery and served a two-year sentence. On the day he is released, his mother and Rosie come to pick him up, only to be told that he had actually been released six months earlier for good behavior.
Despair, poverty, and isolation drive Raju to wander. He encounters a group of sadhus and sleeps in a derelict temple, where a wandering farmer, Bhola [Gajanan Jagirdar], mistakes him for a holy man. Bhola, facing pressure from his sister’s reluctance to marry, spreads the tale that the sleeping wanderer is a swami. Raju is taken as a holy man by the village, and he engages in skirmishes with local priests while the town looks to him for guidance. He tells a childhood story about a holy man whose 12-day fast brought rain to end a drought.
A drought and famine strike the region, and miscommunication among a village fool leads the people to believe the fast will bring rain. At first, Raju resists, explaining that he is only a man who has been accused and punished, but the crowd urges him to begin the fast anyway. He reluctantly agrees, though he doubts the connection between hunger and rain. As the fast continues, his fame grows and thousands come to seek his blessings. An American journalist asks if he truly believes his fast will summon rain, and he replies with quiet humility:
> These people have faith in me, and I have faith in their faith
Rosie, his mother, and his Muslim friend Ghaffoor [Anwar Hussain] visit, but Bhola forbids them entry to the temple on grounds of religious difference. Raju challenges Bhola, asking what religion truly defines him, and ultimately declares that humanity, love, and helping others are his religion. Bhola apologizes, and they share a tender embrace. Raju realizes he has found what he lost long ago.
As his health falters, Raju contemplates the meaning of his life. He is reconciled with his mother, Rosie, and the driver, and he transcends his earthly life. Amid thunder and heavy rain, his soul departs this world while the crowd rejoices and his loved ones mourn. The ending echoes the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom:
> Man does not die; it is only the body that dies. The soul remains forever.
