The movie is narrated in a flashback when Anna's 25 year old son visits the village for the first time and is made aware of the sacrifice of his family to preserve the sanctity of Shimmgga.
Shimmgga is a story of sacrifice to preserve the sanctity of traditions, set in a small village in Konkan. The protagonists (Appa and Anna) are two brothers who are soldiers on their annual visit to their village to celebrate 'Shimmgga', the biggest festival in Konkan. During Shimmgga, the villagers believe that God visits their homes in his chariot ('palkhi') and the most prestigious cluster of homes ('vadi') is the first to welcome the God. The wadi the protagonists belong to ('Ganeshvadi') 'is the first to receive God's palkhi as it has been a tradition over several generations. The antagonist (Tatya), who is a prominent and the most rich person of the village wants to change this tradition as he believes that his wadi (Dhurivadi) is now the most prestigious vadi. The movie shows how the he tries to pressure village sarpanch to convince villagers to change this tradition but to no avail. When Tatya's sister gets married to Anna at her own will as they are in love and to avoid marrying Tatya's choice ('Raghu'), matters reach their boiling point. Raghu, out of spite, burns down Anna's ancestral home which lead to unrest in village and Shimmgga festival is put on hold by district administration.
As a truce, district administration and temple priest decide to hold a palkhi race wherein each wadi will carry their palkhis across all temples in the village. The first to finish the race gets the ultimate honour of being the first vadi to welcome God. Appa, the older and more pragmatic of the two protagonists, refuses to participate in this race, much to Anna disappointment who thinks Appa is shying away from preserving their age old tradition. Appa on the other hand believes that man cannot use God to get their revenge. He is ready to give up his honour of receiving God first for the sake of peace in village. However, no one else agrees and the race begins.
All vadis put all their might to win the race but unfortunately Raghu uses the opportunity to take his revenge and ambushes Anna during the race. When Appa comes to know of Raghu's intent, he rushes to Anna's help but he is too late as Anna is fatally wounded. Appa completes and wins the race for his vadi but he is heartbroken. "He laments that people should forgive each other as when a solder dies on border, it is a matter of honour to his family but when is dies at home due to petty conflicts, it becomes a shame".
