Set in Tokyo and the Shinshu district in the early 20th century, this film is based on a famous novel by NATSUME Soseki. Hioki, a university student, has a deep respect for his professor, Nobuchi; but after a number of visits to the professor's house, Hioki becomes aware of something sinister in the prevailing atmosphere of Nobuchi and his wife's household. While Hioki visits his ill father in his hometown, Nobuchi commits suicide. Before doing so, he sends Hioki a letter outlining the dark secrets of his and his wife's past.

The events in the film and original novel take place in the years following the end of the Meiji Era, a period when Japan developed into a modern industrialised nation. This story is one of an intellectual living at the turn of a generation, deeply concerned by his egocentric individualism.