[2][3] Reiko, a young, disabled woman (she suffers from a limp left arm after a joint inflammation in her childhood), and member of an amateur theatre troupe, lives with her widowed father and her grandmother in a town on Hokkaido.
Katsuragi's wife herself has been in an ongoing affair with medical student Tatsumi, who is obsessed with her and refuses her request to break off the relationship.
The women get acquainted with each other, but Reiko soon develops a deeper affection for Mrs. Katsuragi, which might be the love for a surrogate mother, or even physical attraction.
After Mrs. Katsuragi has committed suicide as a result, Reiko returns once more to the couple's house, but avoids meeting with her lover.
[4] In 2022, the film was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as part of its Beyond Ozu: Hidden Gems of Shochiku Studios retrospective.