Set in the bleak northland during the prewar period, this film chronicles with dark passion the life of a poor prostitute who becomes fatally involved with a greedy merchant and his two sons. "By the time Gosho made this film, his style was orthodox and effortless, as can be seen in his luminous use of widescreen and black-and-white photography...Arthur J. Nolletti (the foremost Gosho scholar in America) comments that this remarkable film has a hardness and anger that seem very un-Gosho-like, notably when a crazed priest tries to exorcize the girl of her 'demons.'" (John Gillett, National Film Theater, London)