Paying Guests

An incompetent lawyer, Ramesh keeps getting evicted for not paying rent. His precarious finances threaten his career and his dignity. The opening establishes his desperate situation and need for a new way to survive.

To secure a roof over his head, Ramesh dons the guise of an elderly man to gain entry as a tenant. This ruse leads him to Shanti, and he quickly falls for her. The plan backfires, yet it seals his fate with love.

Ramesh and Shanti's budding romance begins against the backdrop of their precarious living situation. He confesses feelings despite their social differences. The romance compounds the tension with Chanchal's ambitions in the background.

Chanchal, Shanti's best friend, marries Dayal, a wealthy barrister, for money and a much older husband. After the marriage, Chanchal moves in as Shanti's neighbor, stirring jealousy and plotting. The uneasy triangle sets the stage for later betrayals.

Prakash, Shanti's rake brother-in-law, pressures Shanti's father to send money. Shanti lends money to Ramesh using her father's funds, but there is no spare cash to send to her brother-in-law, and the plan remains unfinished. The family's finances deteriorate further as debts mount.

During an altercation with Prakash and his wife, Shanti's father is pushed and dies due to his frail health. Shanti's elder sister falls ill, and Shanti offers her jewelry to pay for medicine, but Prakash squanders the money on liquor. The family is plunged deeper into desperation.

With finances in tatters, Shanti takes a job in a theater to earn an income. Meanwhile, Chanchal gets Ramesh a job under Dayal, fueling jealousy and rivalry. The two men and two women become entangled in a web of motives.

Chanchal and Prakash scheme to pull Ramesh and Shanti apart. After seeing Ramesh drunk with Chanchal at Dayal's house, Dayal rewrites his Will disowning Chanchal. Prakash then seizes the Will, tightening his leverage.

Chanchal and Prakash conspire to remove Dayal and Dayal is drowned in a lake during a lakeside visit. The murder heightens the stakes around the Will and Shanti's involvement. The two conspirators seek to blackmail Shanti using the Will.

Shanti learns of the blackmail and witnesses shadows of someone strangling Chanchal. She arrives at Chanchal's bungalow to discover Prakash roughing her. When Prakash starts shooting at Shanti, she disarms him and a gunshot ends his life.

Shanti confesses to murdering Prakash and is brought to court on a capital charge. The town's top lawyers refuse to take her case, leaving her fate in limbo. The courtroom becomes the arena where Ramesh, her lover, must decide whether he can save her.

Ramesh finally becomes her lawyer and faces the daunting challenge of proving her innocence. The case tests his legal mind and his love for Shanti. The outcome remains uncertain as the narrative closes with the question of whether she will escape the gallows.