The Cloud-Capped Star is one of Ritwik Ghatak's most powerful and innovative melodramas. A family of refugees from the time of the Partition of Bengal live in a shanty town near Calcutta, surviving on the earnings of the eldest daughter, Neeta. Her elder brother Shankar hopes to become a classical singer while Neeta postpones her marriage to the scientist Sanat to support the family and to pay for Shankar's studies. Eventually, with the tacit encouragement of Neeta's mother, Sanat marries her younger sister Geeta. The family is beset by misfortunes as the father and the younger brother Montu both suffer accidents, forcing Neeta to remain the sole breadwinner in spite of her worsening tuberculosis. Finally Shankar, having achieved his ambition, takes her to a mountain resort for treatment. Terminally ill and having sacrificed her best years, she finally cries out her will to live into the silence of the mountains.