Raj (Raj Kapoor), a poet at heart, is the chief engineer in charge of building the Saraswati dam. Raj’s father wants him to marry the glamorous Chandra (Vijayalakshmi), but he loves Chandra’s sister Neelu (Nargis) who shares his poetic inclinations.

Raj discovers that he has tuberculosis. He then pretends never to have loved Neelu and persuades a doctor friend (Pran) to marry her. Raj also pretends to love Chandra to prove to Neelu that he is an untrustworthy man.
All his lies create far greater emotional problems than the disease itself but Raj and Neelu eventually unite.