Based on Thomas Hardy's classic novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 'Trishna' tells the story of one woman whose life is destroyed by a combination of love and circumstances. Set in contemporary Rajasthan, Trishna (Freida Pinto) meets a wealthy young British businessman Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed) who has come to India to work in his father's hotel business. After an accident destroys her father's Jeep, Trishna goes to work for Jay, and they fall in love. But despite their feelings for each other, they cannot escape the conflicting pressures of a rural society which is changing rapidly through industrialisation, urbanisation and, above all, education. Trishna's tragedy is that she is torn between the traditions of her family life and the dreams and ambitions that her education has given her.

After the passing of his Pondicherry-born mentor, Susanna, Mumbai-based Dr. Arun Kumar Singh narrates his story to his wife, Nalini. With photographs from an old album that he has never shared with anyone, he informs her as to how Susanna caught him stealing; got him to quit his job & enrolled in a Panchgani school, as well as arranged for further education in St. Petersburg. While Susanna herself searched for true love and her marriages with six deceased men - including the abusive Major Edwin Rodrigies; drug-addicted and womanizer guitarist-singer Jamshed Singh Rathore; impotent and abusive Mohammad Wasiullah Khan; bigamist/spy Nicolai Vronski; Inspector Keemat Lal; and Dr. Modhusodon Tarafdar - men who influenced her life, broke her heart - and met with sudden and mysterious deaths.

Guddu and Charlie are identical twins born and raised in the slums of Mumbai. They dream of leaving the squalor behind and moving into a life of prosperity and dignity. Though they look alike, the two are as different as chalk and cheese: one lisps while the other stammers; one is an honest, diligent social worker while the other hedges bets at a racecourse. The brothers want nothing to do with each other, but when Charlie gets mixed up in a deadly get-rich-quick scheme and Guddu realizes that the love of his life has unwittingly put a price on his head, their lives begin to collide. Faced with rogue politicians, drug dealers and crooked cops, they uncover a sinister plot laid out by the 'political-police-underworld' nexus. Their stories finally converge to a point when they realize they only have each other.