A female spirit takes the life of a woodcutter but saves his companion on condition he never reveal what happened that night. Two woodcutters head into the mountains to fell an ancient tree. Caught in a snowstorm, they spend the night in a mountain lodge, where a female spirit appears and takes the life of one of the men. She spares the other man's life on the condition that he never tell anyone what happened that night. The woodcutter (Akira Ishihama, Harakiri) goes on to marry the mysterious beauty Yuki (Shiho Fujimura, Shinobi) and together they have a child. But Yuki catches the eye of a lecherous lord, whose advances force her to reveal a dark secret.

Period film specialist Tokuzo Tanaka, a former assistant to both Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, creates a broodingly atmospheric tale in which the viewer fully empathises with the ghost. Featuring a score by original Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube.