[1][2][3] The marriage of Fumiko and Ryōtarō Namiki has gone stale, with both of them constantly arguing over what to do on a day off, or about her cutting out cooking recipes from the newspaper before he finishes reading it.

Their animosities are witnessed by Fumiko's niece Ayako, who pays a visit to complain about her own husband's inattentiveness, and their new neighbours, the Imasatos.

The next morning, a children's balloon falls into their backyard, and Fumiko and Ryōtarō become engaged in a defiant ball throwing game, which is watched by the neighbours.

Naruse biographer Catherine Russell called Sudden Rain an "extraordinarily bleak film", which nonetheless "offers a poetic treatment of a dismal situation".

[4] Dan Sallitt saw the film's depiction of the marital conflict as "characteristically brutal and devastating" for Naruse, despite the "light-hearted formal play".