After the partition of India in 1947, Shashikanta's family, like millions of other Hindu families of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), faced the dilemma of whether to migrate from the land in which they have been living for centuries. But Shashikanta Sengupta, an eccentric lawyer, stubbornly refuses to leave his motherland. Widower Shashikanta has two children, Minoti and Bidyut. Anuprava Devi is an affectionate old aunt who lives with the family. The family has a house in Narail, a small provincial town on the bank of the Chitra river. Some Muslim neighbors eye Shashaikanta's house. But the family refuse to migrate. Shashikanta's children Minoti and Bidyut are friends with the neighboring Muslim children- Badal, Salma and Nazma. Minoti and Badal become more than friends. The children grow up.

During the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh, in a remote village, a landlord collaborated with the Pakistani army. After the death of his brother, he married his sister-in-law who had a young son. A teacher in the village, with a widowed daughter, taught the young man had a daughter. When the war broke out, the young man joined the Bengali guerrillas, shattering his innocence. In the village, the landlord's action get worse and worse, until he kills the teacher and compels the daughter to marry him. Now the young man must return to his village with new determination.