A tale of the "mad love" between a prostitute and an enlisted soldier during the Sino-Japanese War, Suzuki's harrowingly brutal film may be his most graphically anti-militaristic, a portrait of the violence-particularly toward women-that extends from the military mentality. Harumi (Yumiko Nogawa) is sent to a Manchurian border village as a prostitute for a small Japanese garrison. By day she serves the soldiers, in the evening the non-commissioned grades, and at night the officers. Harumi and Mikami (Tamio Kawachi), an enlisted soldier, fall in love; he deserts his post to be with her and both pay dearly for it. When the garrison falls into Chinese hands, the Chinese prove to be more humane captors than the Japanese. However, offered a choice between two nationalistic ideologies, Harumi and Mikami choose the course dictated by mad love in an insane world.