Mohini is the daughter of Sivashankaralingeswara Prasad, who marries Durgamma following Mohini's mother's death. Durgamma's brother Murthy wants to marry Mohini. Meanwhile, Mohini falls in love with Ashok, who is none other than her neighbour Pati, but she is not aware of that. When Murthy asks Prasad for Mohini's hand in marriage, he is refused by Mohini. An angry Murthy goes to the village and spends some time with Lakshmi and leaves her. When Lakshmi becomes pregnant, she comes to the city in search of Murthy. Before she can find Murthy, she gives birth to a boy in the hospital. She meets Murthy and requests him to accept her and the child. But Murthy refuses so she leaves the child in Pati's car, and goes to the sea to commit suicide. In the meantime, Murthy plans to cancel Mohini's marriage to Pati by using the child. Due to his claim that the child is Pati's and Lakshmi's, the marriage is cancelled. The rest of the story is about how Pati faces problems from Murthy, and how he reunites with Mohini.
        The film was a remake of 1949 Tamil film Vazhkai which was also produced and directed by A.V. Meiyappan with Vyjayanthimala in the lead. Following the success of Vazhkai and Jeevitham, it was remade in Hindi a year later by A. V. Meiyappan as Bahar, however the Hindi version was directed by M. V. Raman who was the writer in the Tamil and Telugu version. Vyjayanthimala is the only star to reprise her role in the all three version where she made her screen and regional debut through all the films.