A singer by profession, Suraj (Rajesh Khanna) gets stranded in resthouse in the coutnryside during a rainstorm. While there he experiences ununsual feelings, as if he has been there before. He feels himself transported to another time and era, to another birth, and drawn to a woman named Ratna (Hema Malini). He is unable to leave this experience behind him, and decides to find out what this means. He discovers that in his past life he was a Chief Singer in the emperor's court, his name was Prakash and he had fallen in love with a courtesan named Ratna, much to the chargin and anger of his family and the emperor's and his officials. They are tragically separated. He subsequently comes across a portrait of Ratna, and shortly after he meets a gypsy, Jhumri (also Hema Malini) who looks exactly like Ratna. Soon Jhumri is also able to recollect her past life, and her love for Prakash. This does not auger well with Rita Malhotra (Asha Sachdev) who loves Suraj, and Appa (Prem Chopra), the son of the leader of the gypsies (Madan Puri), who will not stop at anything to make Jhumri his wife. Appa steals the portrait, and instigates the gypsies against Suraj, so that he can marry Jhumri, and perhaps separate the two lovers again in this birth also.