It stars Ozu regular Chishū Ryū as the patriarch of the Hirayama family who eventually realises that he has a duty to arrange a marriage for his daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita).

Since his marriage, Kōichi has moved out to live with his wife in a small flat, leaving Hirayama and Kazuo to be looked after by Michiko.

Their old teacher of Chinese classics, Sakuma (Eijirō Tōno), nicknamed Hyōtan ("the Gourd"), attends one of the reunions.

Sakuma has too much to drink, and when Kawai and Hirayama take him home, they find that he has fallen on hard times and is running a cheap noodle restaurant in a working-class area.

While he is there, Yoshitarō Sakamoto (Daisuke Katō), the owner of a small local car-repair shop, comes in for a bowl of noodles and recognises Hirayama as the captain of the ship in which he served as a Petty Officer during the war.

Two tipsy customers begin to parody the kind of morale-boosting radio propaganda announcements that would have been introduced by this tune during the war.

He plans to use the extra money to buy a set of second-hand golf clubs from his colleague Miura (Teruo Yoshida).

His wife Akiko (Mariko Okada) does not want him to do so, and says that if he is going to indulge himself like this, she will spend money on an expensive white leather handbag.

The "Gourd" tells his former pupils that it is because he selfishly kept her at home to look after him that his daughter is now condemned to a lonely life as a spinster.

Troubled by this, Hirayama recognises his own selfishness in keeping Michiko at home to look after him, and decides to arrange a marriage for her.

In one of the ellipses Ozu is famous for, the film next shows us Michiko being dressed in a traditional wedding kimono and head-dress.