Jirou is at university to study engineering. On traveling back to Tokyo from a holiday, he meets a young girl named Naoko, who is traveling with her maid. At this time, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 hits, which stops the train and causes Naoko's maid to break her leg. Jirou delivers Naoko and her maid to Naoko's family, then walks away without giving his name.

Several years later, Jirou is promoted to chief designer for a fighter plane competition sponsored by the Navy, which ends in a failure. Disappointed, Jirou visits a summer resort where he runs into Naoko again. Right after Jirou answers that the one he loves is Naoko, she tells him that like her mother, she is afflicted with tuberculosis and may die one day. She goes to a sanatorium to get better. They are engaged, but Naoko decides to leave after to marry Jirou. After their marriage, she is bedridden and waits for her husband to return each day. Days pass and she decides to leave. As the successful launch and flight of Jirou's plane ends, an abrupt and quick breeze goes by, a sign of Naoko's death. She is last seen fading away in a dream after he emerges from his nightmare of the war.