A Sikh ex-soldier, Boota Singh, who served in the British Army at the Burma front during the World War II, is in his thirties when he returns to his village near Jalandhar.

One day while Boota works in his fields, a beautiful young Muslim girl, being chased by the vengeful locals, comes to him for help.

His hopes to settle down by raising dowry money are shattered when he needs to use his savings to rescue the Muslim girl, Zainab.

The villagers object that Boota cannot keep Zainab in his home like this: he should either marry her or leave her in a refugee camp, where people bound for Pakistan live.

But Zainab, who has learned about the sacrifice he made for her and is touched by his simplicity, asks Boota if he is so poor that he cannot even feed her two rotis per day to keep her alive.

A few years later, when India and Pakistan agree to deport women left behind in the riots, he informs the police that there is such a Muslim woman in their village.

In Boota's absence police forcibly dump Zainab into a truck bound for a refugee camp (leaving the child behind).

Then they inform the police and Boota is brought before a judge who is quite willing to free him if his wife owns up, but under pressure from her family, she backs off.

The music director is Amar Haldipur[6] and the playback singers are Gurdas Maan, Asha Bhosle, Anuradha Paudwal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Karaamat Ali Khan, with Amar Noorie as a guest singer.