Koen, a downtown geisha, has relations with men of all ages. One day Tsutui, a customer old enough to be her father, offers her long term, exclusive love.

Five years after Mizoguchi, like a lighter sequel to Street of Shame (in which Ayako Wakao already played), Yûzô Kawashima explores the evolution of the geisha's status, using a disparate form that echoes the heroine's sadly immobile existence. With Koen - the fabulous Ayako Wakao - trying to keep her smile in every circumstance though her life is anything but disappointing, Kawashima delivers a moving portrait of a woman trying, under the guise of her profession, to conjure her solitude and to be loved and respected. One of his most subtly melancholic films.