Arvind Desai is the only son of a rich businessman who deals in luxury handicrafts and products. His feelings for his father are mixed—while he hates his dominating nature, he admires his power and lack of scruples. He has long discussions on art and politics with a Marxist friend Rajan, is seeing his father's secretary Alice, and sometimes he visits a prostitute, Fatima. Much against his wishes, his marriage is arranged to a girl from a high-class family that has just returned from Paris; much to the dismay of Alice's mother, who realizes that Alice was just time-pass for Arvind and nothing more.