It is springtime of 1965, and the festival of lights (Karthika as it is known in native Kerala), is marked by little lamps that dot the precincts of homes. In this auspicious setting, the coming of Devdas, a poet, into the household of a businessman and his two daughters is tinged with expectation and a sense of destiny.

'Swantantram (The Independent) Transport Company' is run by the savvy Achuthan, ably supported by his nephew Purushottoman. The film paints a pretty picture of the close knit Achuthan household - the widower patriarch, his two daughters and Purushottoman (who has an eye for the younger daughter Maya).

Into this picture of harmony enters Devdas, a poet with a mission to revive an ailing publication that has run aground lately for want of funds. After much persuasion, Achuthan agrees to partake of a stake in the publication. Presently, under his shrewd eye, the newspaper enjoys a fresh lease of life. So too for the Achuthan family where Devdas is seen as an able match for the elder sister Radha, widowed from an earlier marriage.

Things however do not work as foreseen by the patriarch and his family. Now a part of the Achuthan household, Devdas finds himself irresistibly drawn to the younger daughter Maya. And when one of his poems is reviewed insightfully by Maya, he begins to understand the sensitive nature of the young girl. Maya herself is taken unawares by the tumult of emotions within her. And what begins as adulation by a wide eyed poetry lover ('his poetry is of a surreal kind; like that of sands shifting gently, imperceptibly beneath one's feet'), takes on the shades of a romance.

What follows is a love that's largely the stuff of classic literature and poetry. Abounding in poetic interludes, the narrative showcases the depth of a lover's torment in tragically beautiful lines such as -

In the fertile bed of my soul, I grew an orchard of roses
With blood and tears did I nurture them,
But in vain did I wait - that someone may come, take a look at my flowers
... that someone may come.

And when Maya and Devdas consummate their love after a poetry reading by the sea ('let's go someplace and read it together, do you like the mountains or the waters?'), it seems like there's no going back for the twosome.

Back home however, the wayward course of events has taken its toll. Haunted by imagined demons, Radha suffers from delusions of loss and betrayal. Under the care of nurses at a missionary hospital in Quilon, she struggles to find her peace. The family now rallies around Radha's safety and well-being. All comes to nought though when in an unguarded moment of melancholia, Radha ends her life by jumping off the steamer bound for home.

For Maya, the tragedy has defined her choices. On a rainy evening, not unlike the same years back when the lovers chanced upon their first meeting, she sets off to the city to earn her living. Achuthan doesn't reproach her in parting. Wiser by the pain of all that has passed, he says gently, "That love could assume a greater meaning than even life is something that would happen only to my little Mayamma (affectionate for Maya). To most others, it is life that holds center stage; love is simply one of the myriad actors paying out its role. Goodbye my dear, and take care; your father bears no ill-will"

As the car moves away from the familial mansion, a boy delivers a parcel to Maya - a collection of poems by Devdas. Inside, scrawled in ink are the lines
- 'To my dear one; it seems one can't quite escape the circumstance of grief. No action can equally justify all compulsions. As a knot tightens here, it loosens elsewhere - and the web of our lives remains, intricate as ever.
.......God knows we are all brought into this world to live our little lives to completion. In our midst, there is no good, no bad, no sin, and no redemption. There's just this one life.'