Jirou Tenge, the second son of what used to be an influential Japanese family, returns home after being a POW in an American camp during the Second World War. He finds his family corrupted by the terrible social aftereffects of the war.

His elder brother, determined to keep what remains of the family patrimony after the Government's forced land reallocation, has prostituted his wife to his father to secure his blessing, while other members of Jiro's family have been drawn into similar corruption, and he himself is being forced to spy for the Americans after being broken as a POW. Now the family's youngest daughter Ayako will have to bear the brunt of the family's sins.