A widower who runs a sake brewery, Manbei Kohayagawa (Ganjirô Nakamura) has three daughters. Manbei's middle daughter, Fumiko (Michiyo Aratama), lives with him, and her husband is employed at the brewery. Manbei's eldest daughter, Akiko (Setsuko Hara), resides with her youngest sister, Noriko (Yoko Tsukasa), away from their childhood home. While the girls come to their father for advice, he gets into trouble when they discover that he has rekindled a romance with an old mistress (Chieko Naniwa).
