Two hostile clans had reached an artificial reconciliation which involves the marriage of a person from each family. The boy's father is away to serve the emperor, and his highly despotic mother has the absolute power. Typical of the atmosphere are the boy's words to her: "If mother was not my mother I would hate her." "If father was not my father I would hate him." The boy eventually finds a poor peasant girl and has a beautiful love affair. But soon his mother appoints this girl to be the son's concubine. As the real wife had so far born no child, if the concubine should be the first to bear a child, the wife and the concubine would exchange their status. In this situation the boy refuses to sleep with his beloved. His mother tries to whip the girl into seducing the boy, and when she fails the mother murders the girl. In this hell the boy finally finds a solution. He is the obstacle which prevents his father from rebelling against the emperor. If he did not exist the father would do so. The son decides to commit harakiri, and is much relieved by this decision.