Tokiko patiently awaits her husband’s return from WWII when her four-year old son falls ill. She takes him to the doctor but has no means of paying, so she resorts…

Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects.

A professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokiko, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Despite being a minor, Setsuko is a liberated woman who does whatever…