The patriarch, Suryashekhar Chattopadhyay is a deeply religious person and a man of firm principles. He treats the predictions of the horoscope like axiomatic truth, realizing little that such predictions, often interpreted in equivocal language, can be misleading. His obduracy distances him from his only son, Alok, who refuses to put up with his father's unbending attitude to the horoscope. Alok marries outside his caste, denounces his horoscope, and leaves home to settle abroad with his wife. Suryashekhar's wife; an accomplished and educated lady, is reduced to being a mute witness to all this and never protests against her husband's whims and harsh decisions. She bears everything with a quiet, resigned dignity. Their grandson, Arijit comes to stay with them through a strange turn of event, and they are overjoyed. But, by then, Suryashekhar has decided that he will die in Benaras (Kashi) to rid himself of the eternal cycle of rebirth. He decides to check in at Moksha Bhavan [lit. 'The House of Salvation'] , a house where people come to die. There Arijit meets Kasturi, a Bihari woman, whose mother-in-law awaits death. Her husband, Shyam cannot father a child, but blames her and abuses her which she refuses to accept. Kasturi takes it up as a challenge to prove that she is capable of carrying a child and as a result gets involved with Arijit. But by another turn of events, Arijit decides to marry Kasturi once he comes to know that he has sired the child she has conceived. As Arijit's parents come to Benaras, and come to know of their relationship, they refuse to accept their son's decision. While confronting Arijit, Alok has a massive heart attack and dies.Suryashekhar is shattered. As the embers of their son's pyre die out, Suryashekhar's wife confronts him for the first time and questions his unbending faith and the truthfulness of the predictions of the horoscope. Suryashekhar realizes how wrong he has been all through his life.