With his closest friend Matahachi Takezo (the town`s wild orphan kid) leaves his village to join an army on its way to battle. After their side loses they seek shelter in the isolated home of a widow Oko and her daughter Akemi. Oko seduces Matahachi who forgets his betrothal to the virtuous Otsu. Oko Matahachi and Akemi go to Kyoto but Takezo returns to the village. Matahachi`s family rejects Takezo`s report and has him arrested for treason. A monk rescues him from death and sentences him to the study of the samurai code. Otsu and Takezo fall in love and she promises to wait for him when he sets off on the road as a knight errant.