In a fascinating excursion into the world of seventeenth-century Kabuki actors, Kazuo Hasegawa portrays the nimaime actor Tojuro Sakata, of Kyoto, who is faced with a challenge from Edo to his classic art form. Nimaime, or "second," refers to the role of the romantic lover, handsome but gentle and therefore second to the tateyaku, typified by the unbending samurai who is incapable of showing love. (The nimaime is in fact the prototype for the Hasegawa leading man.) With the playwright Chikamatsu (Sakae Ozawa), Tojuro devises a new approach to the drama, taking inspiration not from the patterns of fiction but from life itself. Chikamatsu is moved by the sight of an adulteress and her lover being led across the Sanjo bridge to the gallows, and Chikamatsu monogatari is born. But is Tojuro, being inexperienced in matters of adultery, up to his new role? On the eve of opening night he approaches the innkeeper's wife, the gracious and vulnerable Okaji (Machiko Kyo)... Kazuo Mori's visual style translates the bustle of Kyoto into traveling shots, and the measured passions of the Kabuki drama into a distant stillness in this altogether lovely film.