[1] The film follows an amateur entomologist (Okada) who is led to settle in the house of a lonely widow (Kishida) at the bottom of a sand dune in a rural coastal village.

[3] Schoolteacher and amateur entomologist Niki Junpei leaves Tokyo on an expedition to a rural coastal village to collect tiger beetles and other insects that live in sandy soil.

Junpei agrees and is guided down a rope ladder to a hut at the bottom of a sand dune, the home of a young woman.

He learns that she lost her husband and daughter in a sandstorm a year ago and now lives alone; their bodies are said to be buried under the sand somewhere near the hut.

Junpei eventually resigns himself to his situation but requests time each day to see the nearby sea; the villagers agree on the condition that he has sex with the woman while they watch.

Through his persistent efforts to trap a crow as a messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night by capillary action and becomes absorbed in perfecting the technique.

[10] In August 2016, Criterion released the film as a stand-alone Blu-ray with a brand new high definition transfer.

Viewing the work as a retelling of the Sisyphus myth, he wrote: "There has never been sand photography like this (no, not even in "Lawrence of Arabia"), and by anchoring the story so firmly in this tangible physical reality, the cinematographer, Hiroshi Segawa, helps the director pull off the difficult feat of telling a parable as if it is really happening.

Nathaniel Thompson wrote, "[Takemitsu's] often jarring, experimental music here is almost a character unto itself, insinuating itself into the fabric of the celluloid as imperceptibly as the sand.

"[18] Ebert also stated that the score "doesn't underline the action but mocks it, with high, plaintive notes, harsh, like a metallic wind.