[4][5] From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, tens of thousands of young Japanese women were smuggled overseas, as the money they earned promised additional tax incomes for the government.
At the age of 19, she was tricked into leaving Japan with a friend and ended up in Kelang, Malaysia, where she was forced into prostitution on the ground that she had to earn back the cost of her passage and food.
From Mrs. Ishimura he learns that Kikuyo, contrary to her modest on-camera statements, is very unhappy with living at the home of her son's mother-in-law, who only tolerates her because she is a hard labourer.
Back in Malaysia, Imamura locates some other former karayuki-san, who continue living in the same area as Kikuyo and tell of their fates and those of other young women, some of whom disappeared or committed suicide in their despair.
Joan Mellen, in The Waves at Genji's Door, called this film, "Perhaps the most brilliant and feeling of Imamura's fine documentaries.