Mahesh is the son of a fisherman. He grows up seeing his parents always having sex or quarrelling. Pooja is the daughter of an orthodox and very strict businessman, who is always suspicious about her. Vishnu's father neglects his mother and instead has his maid as his paramour. Anitha's parents live abroad, concentrating merely on their work and business, having no time for their daughter and always neglecting her. Harish is regularly beaten up and mistreated by his sadistic father. These five people and another girl named Divya are high school students and best friends. When they find out that Anitha is addicted to drugs, they decide to run away from their homes along with Mani, a pavement bookseller and an older friend of theirs in order to rehabilitate her, but also as a result of their discontent and feeling of alienation from their respective families.

However, their attempts are a waste. They struggle to survive in the outside world. Being young and immature, their daily life becomes hell for them. They reside in a hotel and get caught by the police, who mistake them to be doing illicit activities. Rescued by Mani, they roam the streets and seek shelter in abandoned places. They try to make money for themselves after the cash they brought with them is taken by the inspector. Contacting their parents make their situation worse. All of them realise that their parents do not care about them at all and would not even bother to worry if they are dead. Feeling disappointed, they continue on their journey. Pooja and Mahesh, at a stage, get intimate, much to Divya's shock. When she questions Harish and scolds Divya, neither of them speak a word. Vishnu soon realises that the remaining money that he had went missing, and Anitha too is nowhere to be found. Suspecting her to have been going behind drugs, they start looking for her. Late at night, Vishnu, Mani, and Mahesh go looking for Anitha while Pooja and Divya stay with Harish.

The friends spot Anitha being brought by a man to be sell her as a prostitute and Harish fight them, only to get stabbed. Realizing that they have no other way to survive 'safely' in this world, they decide to return home. They finally return to their school, where the principal lectures the students' parents, blaming them for the students' escape attempt and misbehavior. Hearing the principal's words and her father scolding her, Pooja consumes an unnamed acid from her school lab. Upon hearing this, Mahesh jumps from the second floor. Both are rushed to the hospital, where fortunately, they survive. Ignoring the parents, the rest of their class and batch mates get into the ICU to meet them. Happy that they are safe, they start laughing and mocking each other. The principal tells the parents that they are not worried about what happened and are happy. Feeling ashamed, the parents leave the children alone.

All these are told in a flashback where Mahesh, now in the military, comes back to his school and recalls the memories. He had not disturbed Pooja after that and does not know where his friends are now. Assuring himself that they would have been well off as he is now, he gets interrupted by the principal. But the principal does not recognise Mahesh and walks off. Mahesh tells himself that the principal does not remember him as he would have seen many students in all these years.