Shekhar Gupta is the elder son of wealthy industrialist Kedarnath Gupta. He falls in love at first sight with a girl named Damini after seeing her dance performance at a charity event. Damini belongs to a lower-middle-class family but tends to raise her voice against injustices in society. Her sister eloped with a drunkard mimicry artist, Birju, to Mumbai, in a bid to relieve her father from the onus of arranging a dowry for her wedding.
Damini and Shekhar get married, and Damini moves into his luxurious bungalow. However, this irks Tolu Bajaj, the Guptas' business partner who had been planning to marry his daughter to Shekhar. Bajaj breaks his business partnership with the Guptas and begins to conspire against them. Damini befriends Urmi, a young maidservant who was brought up in the Guptas' house. On the festival of Holi, she witnesses Shekhar's younger brother, Rakesh, and his friends gang-raping Urmi and rushes to tell Shekhar. Shekhar rushes over to prevent the sexual assault but arrives too late. Later, Rakesh and his friends throw Urmi by the roadside.
The Gupta family conspires to cover up this shameful incident. But Damini decides to inform the police. Shekhar tries to convince her not to say anything to the police. When the police visit their home and ask Damini about the incident, she denies having any knowledge of it. Later, it is revealed that it is Tolu Bajaj who bribed the police department to escalate the matter in order to tarnish the Guptas' image. The matter is taken up in court and Damini is asked to testify. The Guptas then hire the top lawyer, Barrister Indrajit Chaddha, as their defence counsel. At the first hearing, Chaddha portrays Damini as a mentally unstable person, and she is confined in a mental institution for two weeks by judicial order.
At this, Shekhar gets upset with his family while the Guptas and Bajaj reunite. At the mental institution, Damini overhears Rakesh asking the doctor to deliberately make Damini mentally ill or even kill her and frame it as a suicide. Damini escapes and runs into a down-and-out alcoholic advocate, Govind Srivastav, who saves her from the culprits chasing her. Govind gave up the legal profession after he failed to secure justice for his wife, Aarti, who was fatally struck on a footpath by a vehicle driven by an intoxicated, wealthy man. Govind, however, decides to help Damini. He gets the rape case reopened. Following this, Chaddha and the Guptas have Urmi murdered in the hospital and try to frame it as a suicide.
At the second hearing, Govind cross-examines the Guptas' driver and is successful in proving that the driver also knew about the incident. He also proves that the suicide note found by police near Urmi's body was fake. Seeing the situation getting out of hand, Chaddha fakes chest pain and asks the court for an adjournment. Later that night, Chaddha meets Govind and asks him to settle out of court. However, an angry Govind challenges him to face him in the courtroom. Following this, the Guptas send goons to kill Govind, but he defeats them in a fight. Damini goes out in public and garners support. Drivers, servants, and other relatives, fed up with the incident, leave the Guptas' house.
Before the next court hearing, Chaddha, the Guptas, and Bajaj plan to kill Damini. Shekhar overhears this and vows to stand by Damini come what may. Later, he is attacked by goons on the road and kidnapped. Mamaji sees this and goes to rescue him. Meanwhile, Bajaj, along with his men, tries to kill Damini while she is going to court. However, they themselves are attacked by local people who shoo them off. At the court, Chaddha requests an adjournment, stating that both Damini and Shekhar are absconding. Govind, however, convinces the judge to wait for Damini. After a short delay, Damini arrives, followed shortly by Shekhar. Both then testify as witnesses to the incident. The court convicts Rakesh and his friends and also sentences the Guptas, along with Bajaj and Chaddha, as accused for covering up the case. Shekhar is spared for helping achieve justice, and the court thanks Damini for her resilience and resolve, stating that she has set a historic example in the history of law and order.
