A twenty-year-old man meets another who is a headmaster of an elementary school in 1920. They form a teacher and pupil relationship. The headmaster has his own methods and is unorthodox leading to his dismissal by the education authorities. The two men, as such, form an education-related business. The former headmaster converts to a sect of Buddhism five years later. In 1930 the two found a new religion. The government is unhappy with the upstarts and their superstitions. They are assigned jail cells at appropriate facilities. The older man dies there. The younger man becomes the lead of the new belief system. His release in 1945 is followed by Japan losing the war. He begins conducting business again.