AllMovie

When he gets a "Dear John" letter from his girlfriend, the disappointed young man in this story quits his job, takes his savings to buy a car, and takes off on a trip to Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. During a side trip to a beach, he meets a girl who joins him on his trip. He also takes on an ex-convict, who is journeying north to meet his wife. When the lad tries to romance the girl, she rejects him heatedly. As they drive, they learn that the ex-prisoner had, in a fit of passion, killed someone involved in his wife's shady past. He has written to her hoping that she will accept him back but will leave without even saying hello if she has not placed the sign of her welcome (a yellow handkerchief) in a window of their house. When they get to the man's old home, the boy and girl are moved to see that he is greeted by a dozen yellow handkerchiefs.