Mitani Kikuji, a young, orphaned businessman, attends a tea ceremony held by his deceased father’s former mistress, Kurimoto Chikako. She plans to introduce him to one of her students, a young woman named Inamura Yukiko, and arrange a match between them. Kikuji is conflicted about attending the ceremony because he is troubled by childhood memories of Chikako and the large, dark birth mark that she has between her breasts. Kikuji once visited Chikako with his father and observed her cutting the hairs that grew from it. The sight deeply disturbed him, as did his father’s deception on the subject in conversation with Kikuji’s mother. Chikako has never married for fear of exposing the birth mark to a husband or nursing an infant from the marked breast.

Kikuji crosses paths with two traditionally dressed young women also heading to the tea ceremony. One of the girls is very attractive, and Kikuji notices that she carries a pink crepe handkerchief with a white thousand-crane pattern. He later finds out that this is Yukiko.