The Ueki family may not be wealthy, but smiles are never in short supply. The father is awarded prize money for 25 years of service to his workplace, but has it stolen on the way home from the ceremony...

On the outskirts of Tokyo, a family of Mitsu Nakahara lives in one of the small huts surrounded by barracks and tin pens. Mitsu's husband died in the war, and she was left alone with four children and works as a day laborer. The eldest daughter Haruko, who is already nineteen years old, works in a clothing store, the second daughter Natsuko works in a restaurant, a schoolboy Akio is studying carpentry, and even the youngest Fuyuko helps her mother by working as a nanny in a neighboring house. Nearby lives a widowed electrician Tokuji Yamada with two boys - Norio and Tatsuo. He has a widowed daughter, Sakiko, who, along with a small child, ran away from home, as she is going through hard times. At Haruko's suggestion, Mitsu and Tokuji get married, and it would seem that happiness smiles on their new family, but it turned out to be short-lived…

A woman brings her injured daughter to the hospital, only to realize that the doctor is the estranged father of her child.