Shailaja Vaidya, a Final Year Engineering student returns to her village, Shibarga, to fulfill the promise she has made to her ailing father Annaji Vaidya. The promise is to reopen the school “Sharada Vidya Mandir” which her father started in memory of her late mother, Sharada. Shailaja reopens the school but she is just not able to control even 11 children because Raju, the self proclaimed leader, is just not willing to accept Shailaja as their new ‘teacher’ since she’s a lady and according to him a ‘lady’ can never be their teacher. Shailaja learns to deal with this issue and wins over most of the children by introducing innovative methods of teaching. And in just a few weeks, the children willingly accept her as their ‘teacher’. But when all is going well, Shailaja gets a rude shock when she finds out that schools with less than 20 students will be shut down unless numbers are met. To make matters worse the students she already has in class are dropping out due to family pressure. She tries to impress upon the villagers to send their children to school but does not get a positive response. Shailaja’s frustration drives her back to the hospital where Annaji is recuperating but on seeing Annaji’s remarkable recovery she decides not to voice her frustration. Annaji thanks her for living up to her promise. Shailaja feels rejuvenated when she returns to Shibarga with a determination to succeed against all odds.Shailaja makes every effort to make learning an ‘interesting’ experience for the children. Shailaja fights against the archaic systems and beliefs amongst the villagers and gets some students to join the school. But, the number of students swings like a pendulum every day until the Inspection Day when the count of students does not account for 20. Although the Education Inspector is impressed by the knowledge of the children, his assistant points out that the school does not meet the norm of 20 children. Shailaja confronts the Inspector and speaks her mind out about the warped rules and number games being played by the Education Department. But her efforts bear fruits when the students help her achieve the target.