Padayappa is a mechanical engineer who returns to his village near Tanjore after three years of work in Madras to attend his sister's engagement. His sister is engaged to Suryaprakash, the son of their maternal uncle. During his stay, he comes across Vasundhara and falls in love with her. However, her shyness and fear of Neelambari, her landlady, prevents Vasundhara from initially expressing her feelings. In addition, Neelambari is Suryaprakash's sister, who had recently returned from abroad after studies, and she falls madly in love with Padayappa due to his charm, strength and bravery.

In a turn of events, Padayappa's father's brother Mani demands a share in the family property. Padayappa's father, the chieftain of the village, follows the customs of his forefathers by giving grand donations to all wedding of the village, under the stipulation that they must happen under consent of both bride and groom, and only under the eyes of the Chieftain in front of the Murugan temple. Out of anger, he reveals that Mani was the son of their dad's mistress, and his mother was compelled to raise him as their own. He refuses to divide the property and instead gives the entire property to Mani. This makes Padayappa's family to sign over the entire wealth and to leave their home the same evening. Mere steps out of their home, unable to bear the shock, Padayappa's father passes away. Padayppa's family moves to a vacant land on the outskirts of the village, which was purchased with the money saved from Padayappa's engineer work. Within days, Suryaprakash marries the daughter of Mani without the village's knowledge, albeit support from both his dad and Mani. Though shocked by this betrayal from her own brother, Padayappa's mother blesses the couple and returns.

Meanwhile, Padayappa sets to clean his land for agriculture. Mani's spy from there gives small rocks from that plot to Mani, who discovers that a hill on that property is solid granite, which will propel Padayppa to even greater wealth. He makes a drama claiming that the ghost of his brother has taught him a lesson, and makes a deal to exchange the entire ancestral wealth for the empty land. Padayappa's mother agrees with this, but after several misfortunate incidents, cancels the deal in Mani's home. Mani reveals the reason for the deal, and forces them to go ahead. Padayappa bashes Mani and his men, and leaves. Padayappa starts the granite business from which he becomes extremely rich. He uses the money to help the poor in his village, and provide them jobs. As his business flourishes, his family is able to once again settle down within months in a palatial residence. Padayappa assumes his father's position as village chieftain, and his sister marries one of the chief engineers who work in his company.

A year later, Neelambari learns about Padayappa's love for Vasundhara and she becomes jealous of her, and tries to harm herself. Her parents beg Padayappa's widowed mother to allow Neelambari to marry him. However, to everyone's surprise, Padayappa's mother proposes marriage for Padayappa and Vasundhara to Vasundhara's mother, her brother's servant and embarrasses Suryaprakash and his father in front of the entire village. This was in retaliation for Suryaprakash's humiliation of her after Padayappa's father death. Not able to bear the humiliation, Neelambari's father commits suicide the same night. When Neelambari tries to kill Vasundhara by letting a bull loose on her after giving her a red sari, Padayappa saves her, by pouring turmeric water on her sari, after which the two marry. Subsequent to the wedding, Neelambari locks herself in a room in Suryaprakash's house, watching and re-watching Padayappa's wedding on video record, thinking of harming Vasundhara about Padayappa for 18 years.

Padayappa helps his father's foster brother, who has fallen on hard financial times. As a result, Padayappa's father's foster brother becomes indebted to him and seeks Padayappa's pardon for his misdeeds. Padayappa forgives him.

Neelambari plans her revenge on Padayappa, now a father of two daughters. Suryaprakash also has a son, Chandraprakash aka Chandru, who studies at the same college as Padayappa's elder daughter, Anitha. Neelambari advises Chandru to make Anitha fall in love with him. At the same time, Padayappa plans to get Anitha married to his sister's son. Neelambari, having made Chandru pretend to fall in love with Anitha, plans to humiliate Padayappa by making Anitha say that she does not wish to marry a groom of her parents' choice, and that she is in love with someone else. At the marriage ceremony, after Anitha does what Neelambari told her to do, Padayappa then makes an oath to unite Anitha with her lover by the next Muhurta day. Padayappa discovers that Chandru really did fall in love with Anitha, even though he was only initially pretending to do so on Neelambari's orders. When Padayappa takes Chandru and Anitha to the temple to get married, Neelambari and Suryaprakash give chase to stop them. During the chase, Suryaprakash is killed in a car accident.

Armed with a machine gun, Neelambari reaches the temple where Chandru and Anitha are married, and tries to kill Padayappa. Instead, Padayappa saves her life by preventing a bull from attacking her, while at the same time dodging the bullets she fires at him. Rather than live with the humiliation of knowing she was unsuccessful in avenging her father's death, as well as having her life saved by her enemy, Neelambari commits suicide, promising to take revenge on Padayappa in her next birth. Padayappa prays for her soul to be at peace and eventually attain salvation.