It is based on Kafū Nagai's 1937 short story A Strange Tale from East of the River.
[1][2] In the Tamanoi (now Higashi-Mukōjima, Sumida) district of 1936 Tokyo, geisha Oyuki earns her money as a prostitute to support her sick mother.
One day, Oyuki meets and falls in love with a new customer, English teacher Junpei, who pretends that he lives alone while in reality he has a wife, Mitsuko.
Junpei eventually returns to Mitsuko, though reluctantly, while the disillusioned Oyuki is hospitalised with blood poisoning.
In the final scene, the narrator, an elderly writer and regular visitor to Tamanoi, reflects on the district's decline with the Pacific War entering its last stage.