A young musician falls in love with Sumangala, the daughter of an impoverished Brahmin in a village of the Namboodiri community. Obeying her father, the young woman marries a mentally retarded member of her own community. The drama is further heightened by first equating Sumangala with the mystificatory folk rituals the musician sets out to discover, and then by the book of poems in which he expresses her condition. The lovers remain separated, with dire consequences, especially for the woman.