Karan Khanna is an orphan and a captain in the Rajputana Armed Forces. He's madly in love with beautiful model Nisha, with whom he plans to tie the knot during his next leave. On the way to Nisha and their life together he bumps into Sahiba Grewal (Aishwarya Rai) who is an eye-witness to a murder and a girl on the run. Paranoid and panic-stricken, she finds an unexpected savior in Karan who rescues her from a group of criminals and stops her from taking her life. Slowly, Sahiba confides in Karan about her painful past and not-so-pretty future. Sahiba is the daughter of the stern and stony-faced patriach, industrialist Yagvendra Grewal who wants to see her settle down with the very suitable son of his friend, Rai Bahadur. Unwilling to get tied down too soon with a stranger, Sahiba lies to her family telling them she got married while studying in the city and is now terrified of returning to Palanpur without a husband. Karan chivalrously offers to make the trip home with her and tell her father that she was forced to lie to him to avoid an early marriage. Along the way, Sahiba falls in love with Karan but he is still starry-eyed about his model. They arrive in Palanpur and Karan soon endears himself to Sahiba's extended family that includes her father, his three younger brothers, their wives and Biji, Sahiba's doting grandmother. Only Yagvendra refuses to accept his son-in-law, who he is convinced is after Sahiba's crores. Karan, who's never had a family of his own, is easily drawn into the warmth surrounding him and life is fine till one of Sahiba's aunts mistakenly assumes that Sahiba's expecting and spreads the word around. Suddenly, even Sahiba's grim father is grinning and life's a bed of roses again for Sahiba, who begs Karan not to leave her ever. Karan on his part finds himself falling in love with his enchanting wife-who-isn't and scared of a future he hasn't planned for, slinks off into the night to meet Nisha. But Nisha is already married and convinces him that Sahiba is his true love and he should return to Palanpur. He does to find that Yagvendra Singh and his family now want to have nothing more to do with him. Sahiba's father wants her to start a new life with Rai Bahadur's son but at the engagement ceremony, Sahiba recognizes him as the murderer she had fled from in the city. She tries to warn her father about his friend and her fiancé but Yagvendra is deaf to all her pleas. However, his younger brother Raunak sides with Karan and tries to prevent the marriage from taking place. But Sahiba believing all is lost, consumes poison before her Romeo can reach her.