유메노 큐사쿠의 동명소설을 영화로 만든 작품. 쇼와 초기, 홀로 자신을 키우던 어머니를 살해했다는 의혹을 샀다가 이모 밑에서 자라나 사촌 여동생과 결혼하기로 되어 있던 젊은 청년 쿠레 이치로(吳一郞)는 갑작스러운 정신발작을 일으켜 사촌 여동생을 목 졸라 살해하고 체포된다. 그리고 주인공인 '나'는 과거의 기억을 모두 잃은 채 정신병원에서 깨어나는데…

A man is confined to a mental institution after trying to murder his fiancee. Two doctors relate his problem to an Asian philosophy that states that mental defects are transmitted from generation to generation. He learns that one of his distant ancestors murdered his wife as a way of demonstrating a point to his lord about the importance of love over the emptiness of lust and to drive home the point further, created a series of illustrations of the dead woman decaying which in turn trigger the memories of his distant descendant. But is the whole thing merely a game concocted by the two doctors, who may even have driven themselves mad?