Paava Kadhaigal

Set in the early 1980's in a small town in Kovai district, Sathar (Kalidas Jayaram), a Muslim trans woman is in love with her Hindu childhood friend Saravanan (Shanthanu Bhagyaraj), whom she affectionately calls 'thangam (gold)' and believes that once her gender reassignment surgery is done, they can get married and live together as a normal couple. But Saravanan confides in Sathar that he is in love with Sathar's younger sister Sahira (Bhavani Sre). Though heartbroken, Sathar comes to terms with the harsh truth and unites Saravanan and Sahira who start seeing each other. Word spreads to both the families about the budding love and due to the religious differences, both families oppose the relationship. Despite Sathar's efforts to protect Sahira, she gets beaten up by their abusive father. Saravanan and Sahira plan to elope and get married and Sathar gives them the money she has saved up for her sex reassignment surgery. A year later, Saravanan and Sahira's families reconcile with each other and invite the young couple and their newborn child back home. Saravanan and Sahira are excited to reunite with Sathar.

However, they are told that after Sathar had helped the couple elope, she was disowned by her family and was thrown out of the house. She was forced to live on the streets where she is stalked and harassed by the town's hooligans. On one such night, she was being chased by the hooligans and all the villagers refused to let her into their homes. Out of desperation, she goes back to her parents for help, but her mother refuses to open the door and instead begs her to die at the hands of the thugs since that would make it easier for her to marry off the rest of her sisters and restore the family's honor. Sathar is devastated upon hearing this, and walks as prey willingly into the hands of the waiting thugs who violate and kill her mercilessly. Saravanan and Sahira are inconsolable at the entire Village's heartlessness and the misfortune they caused Sathar. They leave without meeting their parents despite their constant pleas. Saravanan goes to their favourite spot on the riverside, finds Sathar's little possessions and cries for his long gone friend.

Twin sisters Aadhilakshmi and Jothilakshmi (Anjali) are the daughters of a feudal village lord, Veerasimman (Padam Kumar). Jothi lives in the city, while Aadhi is in the village with her father. Veerasimman seemingly endorses inter-caste marriages for his political agenda, but deep down in his heart he has a strong hatred towards lower caste villagers and his henchmen headed by Narikutty (Jaffer Sadiq) go about killing the couples who marry out of their caste. It is at this point that Aadhilakshmi naively believes in the change of her father's attitude and reveals that she is in love with their family driver (K. Manikandan) who is from a different caste. She confides in Jothi and asks her to come to their village to meet them all. Meanwhile, Veerasimman, on the advice of Narikutty, agrees to kill Aadhi and her boyfriend to preserve the honor of their community. Narikutty sets up a live wire and gets Aadhi to fatally electrocute herself. Her boyfriend is also murdered in a seemingly innocent car crash. Jothilakshmi arrives at her village with her friends, Penelope (Kalki Koechlin) and 'Bad Boy Bharani' (B3). Penelope and Jothi find that Aadhi is missing and things have not changed in her household. Suspecting yet another inter-caste relationship, Narikutty beats up Bharani and this forces Penelope to reveal that Jothi is a lesbian in a sapphic relationship with her and Bharani is just their friend. Veerasimman and Narikutty are horrified at this and threaten to kill everyone. At Aadhi's funeral, Penelope and Bharani are given a death threat and are forced to leave town leaving Jothi behind. Jothi becomes depressed and begs her father to let her go alive and says that she would never come back. Penelope and Bharani arrive that night to pick her up and surprisingly, Veerasimman does not object. On their way back to the city, Penelope calls Veerasimman and Narikutty to tell that Jothi is in fact in a relationship with Bharani and the lesbian relationship was just an act to escape the violence. Years later, it is revealed that Veerasimman really has had a change of heart and escaped his village and its caste based violence and lives in France with his daughter.

Sathya (Gautham Menon), Mathi (Simran) are a close-knit middle-class couple living in Madurai with their three children - a college going son Bharath (Aadithya Bhaskar), an older daughter Vaidehi and the 12 year old Ponnuthaayi. When Vaidehi attains puberty, she is advised by a strictly old-fashioned Mathi on how to stop behaving like a child and start acting like a woman, protect herself and to lead a dignified and honorable life from now onward. But one night, Ponnuthayi is kidnapped after her dance lessons and is sexually abused by a rich brat from their neighborhood. She comes back home traumatized and the entire family is distraught at the wrong that befell their young child. Not wanting to go public with the incident, Mathi refuses to lodge a police complaint despite the pleas of Bharath and Sathya. Sathya is helpless as a father and struggles to cope up with his day to day life. Mathi tries her best to protect Ponnuthaayi from the prying eyes of her neighbors and relatives who start believing rumors following Ponnuthaayi's brief disappearance. Ponnuthaayi slowly recovers from her injuries and Sathya gives her a reassurance that there is nothing wrong on her part and asks her to continue following her dreams. But Mathi is unable to deal with the questions heaped at her and the stories framed by society and briefly imagines pushing Ponnuthaayi off a cliff to avoid the dishonor, but she pulls herself together and is ashamed of her own thoughts. She resolves to continue living with her head held high. An angst ridden Bharath manages to track down the perpetrator, who is his own college senior. He swears revenge and with the help of his friends, he manages to castrate the culprit to prevent him from harming any other girl.

The film begins with a pregnant Sumathi (Sai Pallavi) happily reunited with her estranged family in her village. She was cut off from her parents and siblings a few years ago after she eloped and married Hari (Hari Krishnan), a boy from a lower caste. Both Sumathi and Hari are well-educated and live independently in Bangalore. When Sumathi's father, Janakiraman (Prakash Raj) learns that she is pregnant with his grandchild, he keeps his animosity aside and visits her in the city. Though hesitant to accept his son-in-law at first, Janakiraman willingly invites both of them to his house in the village for Sumathi's baby shower rituals. Surprised at her father's sudden change of heart, Sumathi agrees and goes to her village where she is met with indirect hostility from everyone for eloping, but eventually they warm up to her. On the night before the baby shower, everyone in the family except Sumathi and her parents, go to the reception hall. Suddenly, Sumathi falls sick. When Janakiraman refuses to call the doctor, it is revealed that it was he who poisoned Sumathi's drinking water and is waiting for her and her unborn child to die. Despite Sumathi and her mother's pleas for help, Janakiraman turns a deaf ear, locks her up and chastises her for marrying out of their caste and says that only her death would restore his family's pride and honour. Sumathi begs for her life despite her deteriorating condition, at one point she realizes that her unborn child is dead. Too weak to continue, Sumathi finally succumbs and dies. Janakiraman is beside himself with grief at the fate of his daughter, yet he thinks that this was the only solution to his problem. Finally, it is shown that Hari learns about the tragedy that struck his family and presses murder charges against Janakiraman, who awaits his trial.