The young widow Takigawa Ayako is on trial for the murder of her husband in a mountaineering accident. She claims that in the fall in which her husband nearly dragged her and his student Kôda along to their deaths, she had no choice but to cut the rope. Flashbacks tell the story of an unhappy marriage, Ayako's growing relationship with Kôda and the jealousy of her husband.
“Masumura explores feminine psychology with unusual objectivity, creating authentic characters and tense situations reminiscent in tone and treatment of the best film noir. The ethical issue of self-sacrifice versus self-preservation, clearly spelled out in the film, remains a problem of the wife's role in Japan. Ayako is modern in making public her instinctive grab for her own happiness, traditional in her self-destruction when she fails to attain it.” (Audie Bock)