Pretty Oshige is deceived by her first love. After this, she lives a hard lifestyle, working at a number of jobs. Her only pleasure is her nephew, who eventually becomes a merchant marine. When Oshige meets her old love ten years later, she is able to forgive him and even thank him for the path her life has taken.
Ryohei as a child
金沢の中学教師である堀川周平は、妻を失い、小学生の良平と二人で暮らしていた。しかし修学旅行先で教え子を溺死させてしまい、責任を感じた周平は学校を退職。出身地の信州に帰るが、中学生になった良平を寄宿舎に預け、一人で東京の工場に勤めることにする。帝大を卒業し教師となった良平は、久々に父親と温泉宿で再会し、教師を辞めて一緒に暮らしたいと告げた。しかし周平は「今の仕事を投げ出してはいけない」と息子を諭すのだった。
Jirô
Uta’s mother died when she was six years old; her father she never met. She was forced to adopt a traveller’s life when her grandmother died, and now she is a dancer and part of a family of actors who travel from town to town, setting up street performances. A way of escape from this marginal existence arises when she gets the chance to move to tea merchant Hiramatsu’s place, where she is asked to teach his daughter to dance.
