Hideko Takamine as the consummate Naruse heroine: high minded, determined, and out of her element in a sordid world, here the back-street bars of Tokyo's Ginza district which Naruse recreates in busy detail. Keiko is a Mama-san or bar hostess--a modern, lower-scale incarnation of the geisha. A widow at 30 and exploited by her selfish family, she realizes that she must either remarry or strike out on her own in the face of furious competition from other Mama-sans. Her plans to borrow money change when a customer proposes marriage; but a devastating courtship only reveals the true vulnerability of her position. In a haunting final scene she prepares to climb the stairs to her customers once again, her voice-over narration expressing the sad litany of her life: "Then it gets dark... I hate to climb the stairs. But once I'm up, I trust to luck."