Shyam is a teacher at a small school in a tiny village. Sandhya, and best friends Mintu, and Kamal are some of his students. Kamal has a huge crush on Sandhya, but she is not interested. After school, Shyam visits Sandhya's home to have some documents notarized by her father, who is a local police commissioner. Sandhya and Shyam become closer. Sandhya takes care of her father when he arrives home drunk. She follows him to a party when he lies to her about going on a work trip. On her way home, Sandhya falls and injures her knee and goes to Shyam's house, where his wife, Sunita cares for her and lets her stay with them for the night. Sandhya spies on Shyam and Sunita having sex. While she is asleep, Shyam tries to talk to Sandhya and teases her, but she is angry with him.

The next day, Sandhya rebukes Shyam for lying to her about how he and his wife did not have sexual relations. It is revealed that Sandhya's mom abandoned her as a child and her father has started dating someone new, but was waiting for the right time to tell her. Shyam fixes an old scooter at Sandhya's home. They meet in secret and start having an affair. Kamal is jealous and Mintu wants to help him.

Sandhya and Shyam have sex. One month later, she reveals that she hasn't gotten her period, so they make a secret trip to the city. At the woman's clinic, Sandhya is recognized by her father's girlfriend, who keeps her secret. Sandhya is not pregnant and she and Shyam share a laugh about it. When they return to the village, Shyam tells Sandhya that they should stop seeing each other and keep their relationship strictly a student-teacher one.

Rumors reveal their secret anyway and Sunita threatens to leave Shyam. Shyam scolds and hits Sandhya for being obvious. Meanwhile, Mintu and Kamal wreak havoc on Shyam's empty home. Sunita comes back home. Shyam becomes suspicious of the kids breaking and entering his home when he sees them with some of his stuff. Shyam catch holds of Mintu and kills him by asphyxiation. Kamal manages to escape. But, as he sees Shyam trying to suffocate Mintu to death. He returns with a rock and hits it hard on Shyam, killing him too.

• Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Shyam Tekchand, School Master
• Shweta Tripathi as Sandhya, student
• Trimala Adhikari as Sunita, Shyam's wife
• Mohd Samad as Mintu, Sandhya’s classmate
• Irfan Khan as Kamal, Sandhya’s classmate
• Harish Khanna as Raghuvir Singh, police inspector, Sandhya's father
• Shreya Shah as Neelu, Sandhya's father's love interest

The soundtrack of Haraamkhor consists of just one song, Kidre Jaawan, which was composed by Jasleen Royal and the lyrics of which were written by Aditya Sharma.^[15]

Rajeev Masand of News18 praised the performances of the actors saying that, "the film benefits enormously from the convincing performances at its heart. Shweta Tripathi is in good form as the confused, ignored young teenager who can’t help making all the wrong choices. But it’s Nawazuddin Siddiqui whose brilliant, mostly understated portrayal of a violent predator is the film’s biggest strength." and gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5.^[16] Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times praised the film saying that, "Brave and original, Haraamkhor walks the razor’s edge. One tiny mistake, and it could have been pronounced morally twisted. However, Haraamkhor is one film you just shouldn’t miss, even if it’s just to see how Hindi cinema is exploring new themes with finesse." and gave the film a rating of 4.5 out of 5.^[17] Mayank Bharara of ShowBiz-BizAsia rated the film 7 out of 10 stars. Bharara praised the actors' performances as engaging but noted that the plot "has a tendency to get monotonous."^[18][19]