"Okichi" (Kinuo Yamada) is the beautiful wife of an oil merchant (played by Shôhei Hino) and together they manage to make ends meet by collecting oil from a nearby cave and selling it to local villagers. Yet, even though Okichi has a healthy, young daughter and a husband who simply adores her, she fears that life is passing her by. It's at this time that her husband asks her to counsel a young man named "Yohe" (Shingo Yasuda) who he fears is ruining his life by patronizing a prostitute by the name of "Kogiku" (Nozomi Fujikawa). What the oil merchant doesn't realize is that Okichi is secretly attracted to Yohe and, even worse, Kogiku is extremely jealous and possessive.