Preeti Vyas Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a young woman who bravely comes forward as a witness to a heinous assault carried out by Bhavani Chaudhry Mukesh Rishi and his men on a poor teacher whose land they wanted. The injured man is helped to the hospital by Preeti and a courteous and brave man Avinash, who holds strong morals and values.
Preeti's testimony angers the Choudhry family and, as a result, Choudhry's younger brother, Babloo Choudhry Puru Raaj Kumar rapes her. Subsequently, she is disowned by her family and ostracised by society.
She finds shelter with Avinash, who welcomes her to his home. Avinash lives alone with two young children. He later tells Preeti that the children are the result of a clandestine affair his father had with his secretary. The latter contacted Avinash on her deathbed to beg him to take care of the children. His father flat-out refuses to acknowledge the children. Avinash takes them in and moves out of his parents' house. Preeti works at Avinash's office and helps him take care of the children at home. The two live well together as friends, but this union invites a social opprobrium and strong uproar, and there is no other solution but marriage. They soon fall in love, and Avinash decides to ask Preeti for her hand in marriage. She refuses as she sees that as another favour and kind act, and Avinash respects her decision. Both of them attend a wedding where Preeti sees that her friend is marrying Babloo, the man who had raped her, so Avinash beats him up, and the police arrest Babloo and take him away.
After a year, Avinash's childhood friend Khushi Sonali Bendre returns from the United States. She tries to win his heart, as she is in love with him. This arouses jealousy in Preeti, and she realizes the depth of her love for Avinash. Avinash's parents never approved of his living arrangement with Preeti and want him to marry Khushi. Avinash's mother eventually approaches Preeti and insists she will die with shame if her son marries a rape victim. She begs Preeti to send Avinash to Khushi. Instead of being outraged at this insulting request, Preeti sheds a few tears and agrees. Avinash moves back to his parents' house and agrees to marry Khushi. But Preeti's friend tells Khushi about what Avinash's mother did. Khushi calls off the wedding and tells Avinash the truth. On the other hand, Babloo comes to Preeti's house to take her and marry her since he wants to erase his mistakes by marrying her, and as nobody wants to marry a rape victim, her parents had no other option but to let her go. Eventually, Avinash shows up, stops Babloo from taking away Preeti, and then confronts everyone, including Preeti's parents, for trying to encourage Preeti to marry Babloo, then beats both Babloo and Bhavani as a punishment. Afterwards, Avinash tells Preeti that it's either her choice to leave him or stay with him, as he will always love her. In the end, Preeti and Avinash are reunited.
