Kinuyo Tanaka and Shin Tokudaiji are the children of Reikichi Kawamura and his mistress, Mitsuko Yoshikawa. It's a regularized relationship, and because Kawamura has no children with his wife, Tokudaiji is his recognized heir, and is staying with his father's wife, while working at the firm. However, Kawamura has lost interest int he aging and ill Miss Yoshikawa. Still, he has to see to the marriage of Miss Tanaka, and chooses up-and-coming Shin Saburi, who looks on the marriage as advantageous.
It would be easy to look at this as a precursor of Miss Tanaka's post-war work in the sheki gomin, particularly her work with Mizoguchi. There's little doubt in my mind that her ability to play this sort of character, who comes to realize that Japanese men don't really think of women as humans made her a natural choice for the genre. Even so,there is a freshness to her performance under director Minoru Shibuya that makes this very watchable.
