After meeting with
Meiji era feminist and
Liberal Party member
Toshiko Kishida, the school of young teacher Eiko in
Okayama is closed by the prefecture officials. She leaves her oppressive environment for
Tokyo, following her boyfriend Hayase, but Hayase acts reserved when she reunites with him. Omoi, a prominent Liberal Party politician, offers her a job at the party's newspaper. When Hayase is caught spying on the party for the government, she breaks ties with him and becomes Omoi's lover. Eiko and Omoi are arrested during the turmoils of the
Chichibu incident and sentenced to several years' imprisonment, where Eiko witnesses the same abuse of the female inmates as before of the women labourers in the
textile mills. After the 1889 amnesty of political prisoners, Omoi regroups the party, supported by Eiko. When Eiko is confronted with Omoi's adulterous behaviour, which he blatantly asks her to accept, she realises that he too still nurtures an attitude of male preeminence. She announces to leave him and return to Okayama to establish a school for young women, convinced that only proper education can lead to female liberation. ==Cast==