On the brink of adulthood, Jirô Sugita is an angry young man. He hangs around with a large group of similarly aged youth, and in the absence of knowing how he should act, he emulates the actions of those around him. As they revere money and understand the need for money to get what they want in life, Jirô begins to commit petty crimes, such as muggings. While a number of the girls are attracted to him, especially Toshimi Tani who secretly or not so secretly is in love with him, he treats girls in general poorly in considering them all whores. The two issues of money and considering females whores are strengthened when Etsuko Shimojô needs money for an abortion, she doing whatever to get that money except to tell her live-in "boyfriend", the father Yasuo Ono, whose menial job is even insufficient for him to pay his tuition. Jirô even considers his widowed mother, Masayo Sugita, a whore, his father who was accidentally killed in being run over by a Japanese tank during WWII. While Masayo formerly was a geisha, Jirô negatively views her in light of the fact that she has accepted the assistance of married businessman Keigo Nambara, a military equipment engineer, since her widowhood. In the process, they have fallen in a sort of love with each other, while Jirô considers him the cause of his father's death in being that military equipment supplier.