Bhavani Prasad (Jayant) is a powerful Shakta priest at Kashi. Prasad, a devotee of the black goddess Kali and a thuggee, religiously follows a practice to murder wealthy travelers who stay in his pilgrim guesthouse and offers them as a sacrifice to Kali. Prasad's son Shankar (Iftekhar) does not agree to such practices, opposes his father and decides to leave the village with his wife and their three children: Kundan (Dilip Kumar), Yashoda and Gopal. Prasad forcibly takes Kundan with him to follow in his footsteps and forbids him from seeing the rest of the family.