Toku shares a shack in a shanty village in
Kawasaki with his friend Pin-chan. On his way to the steel factory where he works, Toku meets an exhausted, starving woman, Tsuru, whom he reluctantly gives some of his food. The factory is on strike, but instead of joining the
unionists, who are attacked by strikebreakers, he spends his little money at the bicycle races. After returning home to his shack, he discovers that Tsuru followed him. The two men try to get rid of the seemingly disturbed woman, but let her stay after she gives them her money. Tsuru tells the people of the village her story: An expatriate from
Manchuria, she lost her textile factory job due to a strike, then was robbed of her severance pay, raped, and sold to a brothel in
Tsuchiura, from which she escaped with a friend from Kawasaki. Toku and Pin-chan sell Tsuru to a local brothel, run by the landlord on whose territory the shanty town stands, telling the gullible woman that Pin-cha needs the money for his education. Due to Tsuru's whimsical behaviour, the landlord throws her out and demands his money back, plus compensation for broken goods. Tsuru earns the money by working as a street prostitute outside the train station. After a fight (and possible rape attempt), Pin-chan throws Tsuru out of his shack. Back at the station, the other prostitutes try to beat Tsuru up. She fends them off with a stolen policeman's revolver and is finally shot dead by the police. At her wake, a letter of Tsuru is read aloud, in which she encourages the villagers to resist the landlord who wants to turn the territory into a motorcycle racetrack. Toku and Pin-chan mourn her death, admitting their guilt in her fate. ==Cast==