This story is about a dancer family who are performing for decades. Narayana (Girish Karnad) is a dance teacher; he wants his son Anand (Rajesh) to continue the family tradition. Anand dislikes dance and he wants to study. Narayana sees a poor girl performing in a road show; he adopts that girl and names her as Bhairavi (Malavika). His community members oppose this and prohibit him from entering the village for training a member of the lower caste. He takes it up as a challenge and starts training Bhairavi. Fondness between Anand and Bhairavi grows into love. Narayana fears that if Anand marries Bhairavi he will never allow her to dance, so he tries to separate them. Will Narayana's dream of continuing the tradition succeed?
