Vijay Pal Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) is a disgraced Merchant Navy captain who is branded a coward, humiliated by society and disowned by his parents for abandoning his ship and risking the lives of over 300 passengers. Feeling guilty over his cowardice, he starts working as a coal miner to forget his past. He meets and becomes friends with Ravi (Shashi Kapoor), an engineer in charge of the mines. He also makes an enemy in another co-worker named Mangal (Shatrughan Sinha) who is an escaped convict working in the mines to avoid the police.