After years of low pay in factories, Asao Suzuki and his long-time friend Kikuo Higuchi pool their earnings to buy their own dump truck, which they proudly nickname Independence No. 1. They pay monthly installments on it from the profits of their growing transportation work, savoring a hard-won sense of autonomy. As they ride this brief wave of happiness, they often reflect on their old friends Kiyoshi Yabe, Ichiro, and Ryuji Kitano, who once shared the same dormitory and rough dreams.
Years earlier, after the factory closes, the five men crowd into the dorm until the factory and the building are auctioned off and they are suddenly forced out. That night, Ryuji makes his boxing debut while his friends run afoul of hecklers and end up getting arrested. Ryuji fights with the police to stay close to his friends, and in the same night they hatch a plan to pool their money for the next year to buy their own dump truck. When they are released, they throw themselves into their work and begin to save every paycheck, building toward something they can call their own.
In the present, Kiyoshi’s mother and sister visit him in prison after he falls behind on payments for the truck and is caught trying to steal from a warehouse. Asao recalls a time when he was robbed of his earnings, and Kiyoshi prevented him from taking a knife to seek revenge. Ichiro has fathered a child multiple times and must borrow money from Asao and Kikuo after already taking back the funds he was supposed to contribute to the truck. Ryuji is tragically killed by the police for interfering with their assault on striking workers. His sister tells Asao and Kikuo to hold onto his money for the truck and gives them a rear-view mirror decoration shaped like boxing gloves Ryuji had bought for them, a keepsake that underscores their shared past.
After ten days of rain, Asao and Kikuo are desperate for work to meet the installment, so they take a gravel-transport job from their boss, a move that angers the striking workers at their company. The strain peaks when Asao scrapes the truck against a rock wall, a clash that quickly spirals into a fight between the two men. He apologizes, then goes out drinking at Ryuji’s sister’s bar and ends up sleeping with her. The tension at the site worsens when the striking workers spray-paint the truck with the label Strikebreaker No. 1, forcing the friends to scrub their vehicle clean.
Kiyoshi escapes from prison and hides out with Asao to recover from a gunshot wound he sustained during the escape. When Yukiko finds him, he pulls a knife and demands the keys to the truck from Asao, but he drops the weapon when Asao says that Kiyoshi would have to kill him first. Kiyoshi acknowledges that the real reason he never became a fisherman was a fear of the sea, and he wonders if a new start might be possible if he sees it again. Kikuo threatens to inform the police, but Asao knocks him aside and carries Kiyoshi away in the truck, colliding with Kikuo in the process.
The night drives on toward the coast, and Kiyoshi dies just as they reach the sea. The truck goes over a cliff and crashes onto the beach, Kiyoshi burning in the wreckage while Asao climbs free. He is arrested and ends up back in prison. At the wreckage site, Kikuo and Yukiko reconnect, and Kikuo finds the boxing-glove decoration, a sign that he, too, can decide to start anew and reshape his life.
