Raja Harishchandra was a very honest king. He was known never to tell a lie. Once, God came to test his faith. He told Harishchandra to simply leave the palace. He walked off with just his wife and son. Now the God disguised as a priest asked him to give him a donation (Dakshina) of half a kilo of gold. The king had left everything behind so how could he produce this wealth? God would not hear of it. He said he could grant him time but he must give him the Dakshina. So he promises to work and give the half kg of gold in a few months' time. Harishchandra and his family reach another kingdom and go looking for work. They beg of the King of that land to give them work. The King intervenes on their behalf and gets them jobs. Harishchandra got a job at a cremation ground. For every cremation he receives a gold coin. His wife Taramati got a job at a prostitute’s house who is very jealous of her royal status, so she gives her difficult tasks to do every day. Their son Rohitdas (Roidas) is appointed by the King of that land to pluck flowers for the prayer every morning. The prostitute asks Taramati to get a huge pot of water from the pond and tells her if she breaks the pot she will lose her job. Taramati finds it very hard to lift the pot and asks her husband to help her. But he says he cannot because each one must do their own job. He gives her a solution though. He asks her to walk into the water until the water comes to her shoulders and then place the pot of water on her head. So she manages to retain her job. Their son gets bitten by a snake in the garden while he is plucking the flowers for the king. The king advises him to go to his mother. Taramati runs around trying to find a cure for the snakebite. No help is given. The son dies. She takes the son to the cremation ground. Her husband refuses to cremate the child without being paid the gold coin. Taramati asks Harischandra to kill her because she has no use of her life. He asks her to kill him because he does not want to live either. While all this is going on and they are about to kill each other God appears and revives the son. Harischandra says he still has to work for the King to pay the priest but God takes back his promise and returns his kingdom and past glory to him.