A complex tale of a "simple" woman who, like Tome in The Insect Woman, has nothing in the world except an indomitable instinct for survival. Sadako was raised as a maid in the household of her husband, who continues to treat her as a serf. While the husband is away, Sadako is raped-an act that jars loose long-suppressed memories of childhood sexuality, but also precipitates an awareness in Sadako of her somnambulistic, bovine existence. A bizarre relationship develops between the rapist, who continues to stalk the frightened woman with both tender and violent professions of love, and Sadako, whose intentions to murder him lead to a remarkable denouement. In what many consider to be Imamura's masterpiece, his "explosive" style introduces handheld camera, slow motion, and extreme close-ups where they are least expected, allowing him his distanced, atypical view of violence and sensuality-what critic Joan Mellen characterizes as "Imamura's belief in the basic irrationality of human existence."