A poor rickshaw driver finds himself helping a young woman and her son after the woman’s husband dies suddenly.

In a military family, an illegitimate son is brutalized by his brothers. A patriarchal, feudalistic household where dissent is forbidden is used to reveal the whole imperialist system that afflicted…

Part 2 starts where the first film ended, with Iemon disposing of the bodies of his wife and Kohei, marrying upward, and being blackmailed by the evil Naosuke.

Iemon Tamiya is an impoverished masterless samurai who craves a better life, which he cannot have because of his marriage to Oiwa, who is completely devoted to her husband.

A silk factory worker is persuaded to support her son’s education up to a college level despite their poverty. Many years later, she travels to Tokyo to visit her son.