Akbar is happily married to Raziya. He goes to Saudi Arabia for employment and befriends Raghu Rama Iyer and John Kuruvilla. The three become good friends. Akbar loans some money to another Indian named Haneefa, who is working with them. Haneefa absconds with the money, and all efforts to get back the money go in vain. During a fight with Haneefa, Akbar hits him but misses and accidentally kills Raghu. He is now given the death penalty by a Saudi court . The only way for him to escape the penalty is to obtain a letter from Raghu's wife, Ganga, that she pardons him.
Raziya and her father, Abdu, travel to Palakkad to meet Ganga to plead for mercy and obtain the letter from her. They stay in Abdu's old friend Kunjikannan's house. Ganga's in-laws refuse to let her meet Ganga but Raziya persists. She finally meets Ganga when the latter is visiting the temple, but Ganga refuses to meet her and leaves the scene. Raziya is finally thrown out from the community compound by Raghu's relatives.
Ganga finally realizes that she must pardon Akbar. However, Raziya has left for her home by then. Realizing that pardoning Akbar could lead to ostracisation by her community, Ganga travels to Raziya's hometown and meets her, signs the letter of pardon. When she returns home, she is thrown out by her in-laws and the community.
Akbar returns after serving a three-year sentence and the family visits Ganga who now sells snacks for a living. The children of the families bond with each other oblivious to the relationship between their parents.
Shobha Warrier of Rediff wrote, "It is an emotional film, and very sensitively made. For Kamal, who had been making blockbusters for the last few years, this is an important film as a filmmaker."[8]
