One fateful Diwali night, Deepa became a criminal. Not that she wanted to, all she wished was to save her honour from a gang of misguided spoiled rich young men led by the unscrupulous and slightly drunk Sukhdev, who thought that he could have his way with the maidservant where they were all gathered for a Diwali party and that maidservant happened to be Deepa, but it was not to be. She managed to escape with her honor intact and as an act of retaliation, Sukhdev reported her to a known police officer as having stolen some valuable articles from his friend's house. So Deepa was locked up, in spite of her protests, and in due course sentenced to a remand home for six months. And that was how she became a thief. When she came out, she was a changed person, hardened and clever and over the course of the next four years she went from bad to worse, and became a real thief.

Justice Sinha was the judge in a juvenile court, with a soft corner for all the downtrodden underprivileged youths he had to face and sentence each day in his court, and he heartily wished that there was some way other than jail sentences of curing them of their illnesses. When Sinha saw Deepa in his court, there was some sort of chemistry between them, and although he sentenced her to a year's imprisonment, her independent breezy manner and warm open nature set him thinking. There was a scheme afoot, by which juvenile delinquents could be adopted into respectable families on parole to give them a chance of becoming better citizens. After a discussion with his wife, Uma, in which he had to use all his persuasive powers, Sinha decided to adopt Deepa as his daughter, on a trial basis, for one year and that was how all the fun began. The problems of adjustment that Deepa had to face in her new home were many. Sinha's wife Uma, and college-going daughter Rani were the hardest of all to win over. Because they could not tolerate Deepa's street language and common ways. But the kids in the family, Subash Pappu and Dolly, the old grandmother and the family retainer Ramdeen became her friends at once because she was the underdog.

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