Chinnadurai (Major Sundararajan) owns a huge estate that grows and processes tobacco and tea leaves. Due to advancing age, he is concerned about leaving control to his son, Kalyana (Kamal Hassan) and the cunning deceit of his manager, Ramiah (Thengai Srinivasan). Kalyana is immature and naive, and easily manipulated by the cook, Samipillai (V.K. Ramaswamy). He is also deeply in love with Shenbagam (Sridevi). Ramiah, Samipillai, Perumal (Senthamarai)(Shenbagam's father), and Ligappa (a hired thug) plot to murder Chinnadurai and swindle the property from Kalyana. Ligappa mortally wounds Chinnadurai, and on his death bed he confesses to his son that he was born a twin, abandoned his first wife Rajulakshmi (Puspalatha)and his brother Raman (Kamal Hassan). After his father's death, he conveys this information to the cook, who tells him he will go to Madras and bring his relatives home. Instead, Samipillai goes to a side show, and hires a married couple Rangamani (Manorama) and Kittu, to pretend to be the lost mother and son. One day the entire gang is in a room, laughing at how they had duped Kalyana and will steal everything. He overhears, and runs to tell the police. They chase after him and throw him off a cliff, observed by Shenbagam, who goes mad. Kalyana's ghost travels to Madras and confides everything to his brother, Raman. He wants his brother to go home, exact revenge, and take care of Shenbagam.....