While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
In the grip of war and famine, a makeshift hut amid the reeds, and two women—one waiting for her son, the other for her husband. So far, everything is as it is in other ordinary drama films. However, when the man of the house's friend returns from the war and tells them he died in battle, and especially when the young widow begins to meet with the person who returned from the war alive, things change.