Kaidan

Toyoshiga and Osono's father is killed by Shinzaemon after a debt dispute. He vows revenge for the wrongful murder as his body is dumped in a mysterious lake. The legend grows of a vengeful woman haunting the lake, foreshadowing a curse that will touch the sisters.

Shortly after the murder, Shinzaemon kills his wife and then takes his own life, leaving their infant son Shinkichi an orphan. The baby is placed in the care of his uncle, beginning his precarious life.

Years later, Toyoshiga grows into a respected teacher running a school for girls in Edo. She falls in love with Shinkichi, a tobacco vendor who lives with his uncle.

Toyoshiga and Shinkichi decide to live together as husband and wife. Shinkichi flirts with the students, especially Oisa, provoking Toyoshiga to grow stern and distant. The students, feeling unwelcome, begin to leave the school.

Toyoshiga quarrels with Osono over the relationship, and Osono runs away. The rift strains the sisters and unsettles the household.

During another quarrel, Shinkichi wounds Toyoshiga on the left brow with her shamisen's bachi. The injury slowly weakens her and she falls ill.

At a festival, Oisa meets Shinkichi when he is there to buy medicine for Toyoshiga. They rent a hotel room and he promises to run away with her. He leaves with the intention of keeping that vow despite the danger.

Toyoshiga succumbs to her illness and is laid to rest in a proper burial. Shinkichi discovers a letter she left warning that if he remarries, she will haunt his new wife.

Shinkichi and Oisa elope and flee Edo, but they lose their way in a rainstorm. Toyoshiga's vengeful spirit terrorizes them, and an apparition appears to her husband. In fear, Shinkichi unknowingly strikes with a scythe and fatally wounds Oisa.

Shinkichi wakes up in the house of a wealthy man and learns that Oisa is dead. He flees to Hanyo and soon reunites with Osono, with whom he mourns Toyoshiga.

Osono helps Shinkichi find a place and a job as the master of the house at the wealthy man's residence. She also gives him a small bell as a humble token.

The wealthy man and his wife press Shinkichi to marry their daughter Orui, but he initially declines. He resists, wary of returning to a life entangled with the past.

A blue snake attacks Orui and she burns herself in a fireplace; the burn matches Toyoshiga's scar, prompting Shinkichi to hastily consent to marry Orui.

Shinkichi and Orui have a daughter who is unusually pale and bears a scar on her left brow. The child displays strange characteristics, troubling Shinkichi.

The film ends on a note of foreboding as the daughter's condition suggests the haunting legacy will continue to shape the family. The curse seems far from over, leaving Shinkichi to face an uncertain future.