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Veteran filmmaker Zenzo Matsuyama directs this family drama about a neighbors living on the same tumble-down street during Japan's pre-modern Edo period. The film centers on the grown children of lantern maker Kyubei (Kunio Murai), including his hale son, Fujita (Masanobu Takashima), who is apprenticed to a shoe maker, and his two daughters, Chiyo (Emi Wakui) and Kiku (Kotono Shibuya), who take shamisen lessons from their polite yet contemptuous stepmother (Akiko Kana). The two sisters' friend, Kiwa (Maki Mizuno), is the daughter of a drunken, though masterful painter, and is apprenticed to a pickle maker. One day, the denizens of this street are shocked by a crime in their midst. After learning that his parents have plans to sell their daughters to a brothel, Fujita returns to plead for their freedom and chastity. When that fails, in a fit of rage, he murders his old man. The local police are inclined to go easy on the lad, but the shogunate bureaucrats will hear none of it. Fujita is sentenced to death. Three years later, the execution is carried out. As sisters and neighbors gather to mourn, they learn that Kiwa, their friend, was sold to the same brothel they managed to escape.