The time is 1971, 26 years after Japan's surrender to the Allies and the end of World War II. Sakie (Sachiko Hidari), whose husband was lost in New Guinea, watches the television coverage as the Emperor and Empress officiate at the annual ceremonies honoring Japan's war dead. Sakie is not allowed to participate in these ceremonies and she receives no Government pension. Her husband, or so she was informed in a cryptic telegram from the War Department, was shot as a deserter shortly before the armistice. Sakie, however, finds this difficult to believe. With the years her skepticism has increased as the Government has remained intentionally vague about the exact circumstances surrounding her husband's death. When she tracks down four men who knew her husband in his last days, they tell her a harrowing story.