Japan is in ruins after World War II. Takuya, a demoralized officer, returns to his native village only to learn the Occupation authorities are intensifying their efforts to apprehend suspected war criminals. Fearing theywill learn of his involvement in the execution of American prisoners, he takes to the road and becomes a fugitive in his own country

As he travels on crowded trains through a land of defeat, humiliation, and hunger, he fears that his past will catch up with him. And yet Takuya does not feel like a criminal. After all, he had only been following orders. Why should an honest and dutiful man be prosecuted by the very people who dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, slaughtering countless innocent citizens?