Naruse was already aware that he was dying when he made this deeply moving drama about a young woman haunted by her husband's death in a car accident. She at first refuses to forgive the driver of the car, who approaches her in sincere contrition. After the two meet again by chance in Hokkaido, a fated bond slowly grows between them, although the past continues to cast its long shadow. Phillip Lopate called this “one of (Naruse's) strangest and strongest. It is eerie to see how well his style worked inside the mode of the late sixties; how curiously modernist it looks in CinemaScope, with its cool, restrained colors and spare compositions; how suitable his theme was to the age of alienation, though it is only Naruse's old song: that people keep scheming to get a little of what they want in a world designed for unhappiness.”