Told via flashback, this intense melodrama stars Kyôko Kishida as Japanese housewife Sonoko Kakiuchi, who becomes involved in a web of lust, envy, duplicity and mind games after embarking on an affair with a beautiful but scheming fellow art student (Ayako Wakao). Based on a book by Junichirô Tanizaki, the intricate film also stars Yûsuke Kawazu and Eiji Funakoshi as Sonoko's passionless attorney husband.