Two lovers committed suicide by jumping to their deaths in Japan's cattle country. Chieko Higashiyama adopted the baby girl they left behind, raising her as the sister of her son. A the main body of the movie starts, the girl has grown into Kuniko Igawa and the son into Yasumi Hara. They each have a secret to tell each other, so they agree to reveal them at the moon festival in five days. She tells her secret first: while Hara was away in the war, she fell in love with evacuated and battle-crippled Junji Soneda. She wants the blessing of her brother and mother. So he doesn't tell her his secret: he loves her and wishes them to be married.
It's a simple story of how families sacrifice for each other and are glad for it. For his first effort as writer-director, Keisuke Kinoshita was playing it safe, relying on his actors, his usual cameraman, Hiroshi Kusuda, his own brother to write the music, and the gorgeous scenery of the mountains. It's a slight effort, compared to the movies he would turn out over the next forty years, but well done.
