The film is based on a short story located in the interior rural landscape of Kutch, on the western borders of Gujarat, India. It is the story of an impotent man (Ghelo) in search of a child for himself, and water for his land. His three wives: Monghi (Nandita Das), Dhanbai (Sujata Mehta), and Ratni (Sameera Avasthi) fail to deliver a child as the rains fail to soak the dry, arid terrain of the rocky land of the Rann of Kutch.
The story is narrated from the viewpoints of Ghelo’s friends: Pranjivan (Sandip Kulkarni) and Jussab (Raghuvir Yadav). Pranjivan is an educated unemployed whereas Jussab is Ghelo’s chief associate in the job’s of decoity. In his endeavour to prove his conviction that the rich and powerful (the landlord and the state) can only be contained by asserting more power over them, Ghelo struggles through his life without love from his kin and without support of his friends. Finally, out of desperation, he forcibly involves Pranjivan in a Raid (Dhaad) over the landlord’s wealth. The landlord’s (Bhim Vakani) pregnant daughter (Pelva) challenges Ghelo during the raid. Ghelo’s conviction begins to melt away. His strength is drained out as he suffers a fatal stroke of paralysis.
