Oshima, the celebiated director of Boy, the Ceremony, and Diary of a Shinkuju Thief, probes the effects of the USA occupation on the indigenous culture of the inhabitants of Okinawa, and explores the guilt feelings of the Japanese about the island, which remained under foreign control until 1972.

Sunaoko, a fourteen-year old girl, with her music teacher, Momoko as chaperone, journeys to Okinawa from Tokyo in search of her brother Tsuruo Their tounst guide, a young hippy who attracts Momoko's attentions, turns out to be Tsuruo, a fact which Momoko attempts to keep from her charge. The processes of concealing and seeking the truth in this affair are linked with the arrival in Okinawa of a Japanese, stricken with guilt at the suffering his people have caused those on the island He is seeking out the means to his own death and thus he believes, to the expiation of his sense of guilt.