Picture Bride

She is shown a photo of Matsuji who is twenty years older than her. Her aunt arranges the marriage after her father's death. When she arrives in Honolulu, she participates in a mass ceremony with other picture brides.

After the ceremony, Riyo rides a wagon to a ramshackle house on a sugarcane plantation. She hears a faint singing in the wind from the fields and wonders about its source. Matsuji half jokes that the ghosts of the canefields are welcoming her.

On her first day in the fields she is given an ID tag and slows the pace, drawing harassment from Antone the luna. Yayoi and Kana mentor her and help her cope with the demands. Riyo forms a growing friendship with Kana as they work together.

Kana reveals that her husband Kanzaki beats her and gambles away money. To escape, Kana walks into the fields at night with her baby and sings to keep up her spirit. Riyo learns more about the harsh life the picture brides endure.

Riyo takes on additional laundry work for the other workers and saves the earnings in a tin can with the aim of returning to Japan. Matsuji's drinking and gambling grow as he dreams of winning enough money for another bride. Kana advises him to be romantic and to model Rudolf Valentino to win Riyo's heart.

Matsuji continues to drink and gamble, declaring his plan to win more money to marry another bride. Kana counsels him that romance, not force, will win Riyo, pointing to cinema idols like Valentino as inspiration. The couple's dynamic becomes more strained as the dream persists.

Antone orders the field to be burned to speed up harvesting, rushing the process. He does not let the women locate their children first, so Kana's baby Kei vanishes in the blaze. Neither mother nor daughter is seen again, echoing the peril in their lives.

News of the tragedy sparks talk of a strike among the workers. Matsuji asks Riyo to contribute some of her savings to support the effort, but she refuses, still clinging to the hope of returning to Japan someday. The community begins to fray under pressure and fear.

One night Riyo follows a singing voice and opens up about the tuberculosis deaths of her parents and the stigma that surrounded it. Her aunt had lied to Matsuji about her status, and Matsuji accuses her of having a secret lover, deepening the rift between them. He turns away, marking a turning point in their relationship.

Feeling betrayed, Riyo gathers her savings and belongings and runs away to the sea. She falls asleep on the shore and is awakened by the sight of Kana, who says she is leaving for Japan. Kana hands Riyo her neck tag and asks her to look after the other girls, then fades into the sea.

Riyo wakes, returns to the plantation, and finds Matsuji drunk. She helps him into bed and he remarks that he thought he was alone again. In a quiet moment they reach out and share a hesitant, intimate embrace.

The next day she begins singing in the fields and steps into a mantle of leadership once held by Kana and Yayoi. Antone mocks her, but she persists and grows more confident. Matsuji gifts her a Buddhist altar to honor her parents, acknowledging her past and her place in the community.

The workers dance in a circle at a lively Obon Festival, celebrating resilience and community. An older Riyo narrates that she sometimes hears a woman's voice singing, imagining it to be her own daughter's voice in the future. The film closes on a note of memory and hopeful continuity.