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Machiko Kyô's mother was a geisha; now she is spending her savings on an old rival. Her sister, Yasuko Fujita, works for the travel commission, but is engaged to be married. Miss Kyô is in the process of dumping a lover, who stole money to give her and is now broke, for a new one, who can give her more. When Miss Fujita's fiance's mother breaks off the marriage with an eye towards a more rewarding marriage.

Throughout the movie Miss Kyô offers a cynical, greedy and insincere performance, underlining her attitude of caring for nothing but money. But does she? She tries to raise the money to pay off her mother's debts; she urges her sister to leave Kyoto, with its suffocating history. She treats men with contempt, but she seems to care for her family.

Take a look at the settings for the scenes. They are invariably indoors, in controlled environments, with the streets and roofs of Kyoto seen in the distance. This will have a major pay-off in the denouement.

The director continues his exploration of the precariousness of existence in postwar Japan with this incisive study - which also provides a vivid record of early fifties Kyoto - of two sisters both at the mercy of the whims of the men who hold the purse-strings as they labour to keep a roof over their heads.