In February 1945, the demoralized Imperial Japanese Army on Leyte is cut off from support and supplies as Allied forces push to liberate the Philippine island. Private Tamura, plagued by tuberculosis, is treated as a useless burden by a unit reduced to little more than a platoon. He is ordered to commit suicide by grenade if he cannot be readmitted to a nearby field hospital. A sympathetic soldier secretly provides him several yams from the meager rations.
On the way, he notices smoke in the distance and reaches a crowded hospital. He’s scolded for returning and sent away, joining a group of other rejectees outside. When the Allies begin shelling, the medical staff abandon the patients and flee. The hospital is struck and destroyed. Tamura flees, and after a quick glance back, he sees many bodies strewn about and chooses not to aid anyone who might still be alive.
Traveling alone, Tamura discovers a deserted village on the coast, where he finds a pile of dead Japanese soldiers. A young Filipino couple arrives by canoe and darts to retrieve a cache of salt hidden under a floorboard. When Tamura enters the hut, the girl begins to scream. Tamura tries to placate them by lowering his rifle, but she continues to scream. He shoots her. The young man escapes in his canoe. Tamura takes the salt and leaves, after dropping his gun in a lake.
He next encounters three Japanese soldiers. They sight more smoke. Tamura believes all the smoke he’s seen is coming from signal fires, but one of the others tells him that it’s just farmers burning corn husks. The squad leader mentions that the army has been ordered to Palompon for evacuation to Cebu. Tamura asks to accompany them. When one soldier notices Tamura’s full bag, he shares his salt.
They soon join a stream of ragged, malnourished, dejected soldiers heading to Palompon. Among them are Nagamatsu and Yasuda, familiar men from Tamura’s company. Yasuda, wounded in the leg, has Nagamatsu try to trade tobacco for food. When the soldiers reach a heavily traveled road, they decide to wait for night before trying to cross, but they are ambushed by the waiting Americans. The few survivors flee back the way they came.
Later, an American jeep arrives. Tamura prepares to surrender, but changes his mind when he sees a Filipino woman gun down a fellow Japanese trying the same thing. The accompanying American soldiers are too late to stop her.
Tamura wanders aimlessly. He then runs into a man who promptly dies in front of him, and he takes the dead man’s shoes. Later, he comes across a crazed, exhausted soldier who is consuming his own excrement. He tells Tamura he can eat his body after he is dead. Tamura hastily departs.
He comes across Nagamatsu and Yasuda again. They claim to have survived on monkey meat and are living in the forest. Later, Nagamatsu goes out saying he will hunt more monkeys. When Tamura mentions he has a grenade, Yasuda steals it. Tamura leaves to find Nagamatsu and witnesses him attempting to shoot another man, realizing with a shock what the “monkey meat” really is. Nagamatsu turns the gun toward Tamura, who saves himself by pretending he still has the grenade. Nagamatsu tells Tamura they would be dead if they did not resort to cannibalism.
They head back to camp, but when Tamura mentions that Yasuda has his grenade, Nagamatsu says they will have to kill him or be killed. After tricking Yasuda into spending the grenade, Nagamatsu runs off and stakes out the only source of water in the area. After several days, Yasuda tries to bargain for water, to no avail. When he makes his way to the water anyway, Nagamatsu shoots him and begins butchering his body for meat. Tamura becomes disgusted and shoots Nagamatsu.
Tamura then heads towards the “fires on the plains,” desperate to find someone “who is leading a normal life.” He slowly walks forward, even as Filipinos shoot at him. The film ends as a bullet hits Tamura and he collapses lifeless to the ground.
