Shirô Kimura

Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warden of Kabato Prison terrorizes convicts sentenced to forced labor to build the roads needed to open up the territory.

Depicts the bloody siege of the fortress of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world, during the Russo-Japanese War of (1904 - 1905). In the story dominated the character Lt Takeshi Kogyo (Teruhiko Aoi), teachers, and a reserve officer who became commander of the platoon and later company. At the same time monitors the conduct of the army commander general Nogi (Tatsuya Nakadai), which was commissioned of the emperor Matsuhito (Toshirô Mifune) to the conquest of the fort.

One night, a passenger car driven by Kyoko hit and killed a woman. Her husband, Dr. Nogami, who was a passenger in the car, hid the body in the grass and they returned home. Soon after, an autopsy by the police revealed the identity of the woman. A few days later, the woman's lover, Ueda, calls Nogami demanding that he keep quiet.