Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man (Bokuzen Hidari) and an aging actor (Kamatari Fujiwara), get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi (Toshirô Mifune) breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi (Isuzu Yamada) to romance her younger sister, Okayo (Kyoko Kagawa), Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband (Ganjirô Nakamura).