A woman marries, gives birth to a stillborn child, and divorces, falls in love with a hotel-keeper, only to find herself subordinated to his drive for success, takes up with a tailor who cannot console himself with her strong personality.
Donald Richie and Joseph L. Anderson found in protagonist Ōshima "one of the strongest characters Naruse ever created", but also an out-of-place "postwar strain of neuroticism" in Hideko Takamine's interpretation.[4]
^Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. ISBN978-0-8108-6004-9.
^Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1959). The Japanese Film – Art & Industry. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.