The film is centred around a beggar named Bholu who has a patch outside a temple and makes a living from alms given to him by devotees. A local thug named Parbat extorts money from Bholu and pressurises him to make more money, so Bholu pretends to be a leper.
Then his little business is challenged when a young woman named Chamki turns up with her child and stations herself outside the temple and begins to beg. The arrival of Chamki is also the beginning of a change in Bholu's life.