Three recently released criminals hatch a bold plan to kidnap Toshiko Yanagawa, commonly called Toji, Tanie Kitabayashi, the 82-year-old forestry magnate and the wealthiest person in Wakayama Prefecture. They stake out her mansion for two months, carefully observing her routine and noting that she sometimes heads into the mountains with her chambermaid, Kimi Reiko Matsunaga. When the moment arrives, the abduction unfolds with a calm, almost clinical efficiency, and the trio succeeds in pulling Toji into their car.
During the escape, she remains cool and begins guiding the group on how to outwit the police, insisting they head to a former servant’s house rather than a conventional hideout. At the new location, she is affronted to hear the ransom is initially only 50 million yen and she demands they raise it to ten billion yen; she then outlines, in precise detail, how the ransom note will be delivered, how her family will gather the funds, and how the police will receive the payment.
Inspector Daigoro Igari, played by Ken Ogata, takes a personal interest in the case, shaped by a past gesture of charity toward him. He addresses the kidnappers on television to express skepticism that she is truly safe, signaling that the authorities are watching the moves of those who pulled off the crime. Toji responds by arranging a TV broadcast from an undisclosed location, a calculated display intended to reassure her family and demonstrate that the ransom is being managed, all while quietly guiding how the money will be made available after taxes.
The logistics grow unrealistically large: ten billion yen occupies so much space that a helicopter carrying it barely leaves room for the pilot. A second helicopter trails the ransom helicopter, but after landing in a mountain pass, the lead craft disappears. The pilot is later found in a cave, drugged and asleep, his erratic flight path a trace of the chaos surrounding the money.
Meanwhile, one of the kidnappers falls in love with a local woman and chooses to become an honest man, refusing his share. Another takes his cut, interpreting it as the promised ten million yen, while the kidnapper who conceived the plan decides to take a job for Toji as a carpenter. His first assignment is to repair a shrine, a task that Tōji’s enemies later suspect might conceal much of the ransom.
Igari returns to the case with a wary conclusion: the motive seems to be tax evasion and preventing her mountains from slipping under government ownership. He hints that most of the ten billion yen could be hidden in the shrine that was just repaired, but he makes no move to press the matter further.
The story unfolds with a steady, measured narration, and the audience is guided through shifting perspectives as the lines between wealth, corruption, and moral compromise blur. The narration—provided by Minori Terada—frames the events with a calm, almost documentary rhythm, lending weight to the film’s deliberate pace and quiet moral complexity.
