Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur), a thirteen-year-old Kashmiri boy from a middle-class family, meets and becomes deeply infatuated with Firdaus (Katrina Kaif), the daughter of a rich elite family in Kashmir that employs him. Firdaus' mother, Begum Hazrat Jahaan (Tabu), was left heartbroken in her youth and disapproves of Noor's feelings to his low social status. Despite this, Noor and Firdaus grow closer until Hazrat sends Firdaus abroad for school, insulting Noor as she breaks the news.

Years later, Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur) receives a prestigious art scholarship and moves to Delhi, where he encounters Firdaus (Katrina Kaif) again. By this time she is engaged to Bilal (Rahul Bhat), a Pakistani diplomat, but Noor's feelings have not changed and they begin a relationship. Despite initial friction with Noor, who by this time is a successful artist, Hazrat slowly starts to realise her mistake, but is still adamant that Firdaus should marry Bilal, and orders her against her will. A flashback of Hazrat and her lover Mufti (Akshay Oberoi), who left her pregnant and ran away with all her jewels, shows why she insisted on Firdaus marrying Bilal and let go of her love. Noor travels for an art show in London where he finds out that the art scholarship was given by Moazam (Ajay Devgn), a terrorist he saved when he was young, and not by Hazrat as he thought. Upset that he has been merely a pawn in Moazam's scheme and realizing that Hazrat has been playing him all along, Noor confronts her in London where she denies manipulating him and bursts into a fit of rage for her former lover Mufti and Noor realizes that she has been seeking redemption by breaking his heart. Noor goes back to the gallery and burns his artwork which was related to the memory of Firdaus. Another flashback of Hazrat shows that she lost her baby and Firdaus is her adopted daughter. She wakes up distraught and commits suicide. At her funeral, a grieving Firdaus opens her pendant to find Mufti's picture in it with Hazrat's and realizes that she could never get over her love for Noor. With this realization, Firdaus decides to leave Bilal and reunites with Noor.