Shiva and Gauri are childhood friends who are completely in love with each other. Gauri's father is a land lord and disagrees to the relationship as shiva is a laborer and does not match up to his class. Gauri's father has already searched a groom for Gauri without her approval. This being the third movie of Shivarajkumar as a lead actor, it went on to complete a silver jubilee theatrical run like the previous two movies, which earned him the title Hattrick Hero, which has remained an untouched record in the Indian cinema history. The movie was based on the novel Bete written by Kum. Veerabhadrappa. The movie was later remade in Tamil as Annakili Sonna Kathai.

Ravi loves Vatsala, his sister's step-daughter. However, his sister wants him to marry her own daughter, Nagaveni, and fixes Vatsala's marriage to another man against her wish.