An old retired couple, Shukichi Hirayama and his wife, Tomiko, come from their island near Hiroshima, to visit their children in Tokyo. They have 3 children. The oldest son, Koichi is a doctor, his sister Shigeko runs a beauty parlor and the youngest, Shuji, is a stagehand working in the theatre. None of them has any time to spare for the parents, and try, with various degrees of courtesy, to get rid of the unwanted burden. On the eve of their return home, the mother dies, and after the obligatory five minutes of mournful expressions, everyone goes back to his life, with the exception of the youngest son’s fiancée, Noriko, who shows more feeling for the bereaved father than all of his children. ~~~ The story is basicaly the same as Yasujiro Ozu's 1953 "Tokyo Story" (Tokyo Monogatari) but with some small changes.