In postwar Kagoshima, a young boy lives with his sick mother and younger sister under the shadow of his late father, a disgraced army general executed after the war. Once honored as a hero, his father is now mocked by the townspeople, and the children endure both poverty and cruelty. After their mother dies, Katsu is taken away by his estranged grandfather, whose real interest lies in the military pension left behind by the family.