A daughter of poor parents was engaged to a man when she was 13. The man is away working in Calcutta. In the meanwhile, she befriends a truck-driver who promises her parents a huge amount of money. The girl is snatched away by her father-in-law and raped by him. But she is punished for his crime.

After destroying his older brother's motorbike in retaliation for his constant bullying, 11-year-old Krishna is sent to a traveling circus to earn money to pay for the bike's repairs, but soon winds up in the streets of Bombay's poorest slums. There, he befriends the drug dealer Chillum and young prostitute Sola Saal, while trying to make enough money at a neighborhood tea stall to repay his debt to his family.