Yukiko is a middle aged geisha working at the Bel Ami bar in the Ginza district of Tokyo. She is the single mother of young adolescent Haruo, the product of a liaison with a former customer who she thought was going to be the love of her life, but who walked out on her when he found out she was pregnant. When Yukiko is working, she usually gets Kyôko, one of her younger colleagues, to look after Haruo, that is whenever she isn't letting Haruo run loose on the streets. Haruo knows the routine that he is not to return home if he sees men's shoes outside the door, they usually belonging to married Mr. Fujimura. Yukiko feels she owes Fujimura who helped her when she was pregnant, but in reality she has long paid Fujimura what support he has provided her. She evaluates her life and future as a geisha as the men in her life seem increasingly to take advantage of her good nature and as her boss contemplates selling the bar. She contemplates whether happiness is too late for her to achieve, either in security for her and Haruo, and/or in true love, which she knows cannot or will not happen with anyone she meets at work as history has shown and as customers will have a certain expectation of her as a geisha.—Huggo