Colonel Sahab is a doctor in a psychiatry ward and Nurse Radha (Waheeda Rahman) is heart-broken after a civilian patient, Dev Kumar (Dharmendra), whom she cared for, pouring out her love and affection, leaves the hospital, as she had been unable to keep her heart separate from her professional work and had fallen in love with her patient. Next Arun Choudury (Rajesh Khanna), a writer and poet enters as a patient, suffering acute mania after being rejected by his lover, Sulekha. After refusing to take his care, Radha relents and starts nursing him. In between while caring for Arun she reminisces her past and tells a story of how she took care of injured brave army soldiers when she was posted in Laddakh during the Sino-Indian war of 1962.