Mainly told in flashback, the film follows her subsequent decline and fall. Kinuyo Tanaka, gives an outstanding performance as O-Haru. O-Haru (Kinuyo Tanaka), is a noble young lady who yields to the passion of a young page (played by Toshiro Mifune). The penalty is death for him, social ostracism for O-Haru and her family. Punished for her lapse from social grace, O-Haru is sent into exile with her parents. She next has the good fortune to be accepted as mistress by a nobleman requiring an heir; but when this task is accomplished she is sent away by his clan, who fear the effects upon their lord of his growing love for O-Haru. Her father next sells her as a concubine. She is bought out; but the stigma follows her. A happy marriage with a fan-maker is ended abruptly when her husband is murdered. She enters a monastery but there too, her past pursues her. Degraded as the years go by, to an ageing and ugly prostitute, she is summoned to the house of her son, who has succeeded as lord of the clan; but it is only to be reprimanded, and allowed a brief glimpse of her child. Finally, she is seen begging from door to door.

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