Laholi is a small village in India whose inhabitants are poor, simple-minded, and are used to their lives being controlled by the dictatorial Landlord, Thakurain, and her brother, Baj Bahadur. Although Lilaram is the one with the highest educational qualifications, he is unable to secure any job. He decides to make a living selling lottery tickets, especially the Delhi-based Malamaal Weekly, but is barely able to make ends meet. Then one day he finds out that one of his lottery tickets is a winner. He concocts a scheme with his wife, which involves pawning her pet goat with the Thakurain, getting people together for a feast, so that he can get their tickets back - all in vain. Then he finds out that the only one who was absent was the town drunk, Anthony Fernandes. When he goes to Anthony's house he finds him dead, happily clutching his winning lottery ticket.