"Naruse's favorite actress, Hideko Takamine, plays a bar hostess who this time has already experienced complete exploitation by a man, again played by Masayuki Mori, and tries to get away from it. A minor incident that shows her married college-professor lover for the coward that he is changes Miho's feelings toward him, and she decides to break off a relationship of some 18 years. Realizing she has nothing, in exchange for the breakup she asks his wife to give her the ownership of the bar she manages for them. The couple refuse, and in desperation Miho asks to have back the younger of her two children, both of whom the couple have adopted. In the end the children are outraged and disgusted with the adults, and Miho has lost everything by trying to get something of her own." --Audie Bock