The film is set in immediate postwar Japan, Tokyo. Tokiko (Kinuyo Tanaka), a twenty-nine-year-old mother of a young boy of four, is waiting for her husband's repatriation from World War II. In postwar Tokyo prices are escalating and the mother rents a room in a working-class industrial district, making ends meet through dressmaking. She is supported by a long-time friend and former workmate Akiko (Chieko Murata).