The story was set in around 1950, shortly after the end of the World War II, when Yuko, the daughter of a wood cutter in Tarudomari (樽泊), a poor village in Tango, was voluntarily sold to a red-light district Goban-cho Yugiri-ro in Nishijin, Kyoto to be a prostitute to support her poor father, mother with lung disease, and three younger sisters.
戦後間もない昭和25年ごろ、丹後の寒村・樽泊の木樵の娘・夕子は、貧しい父、肺病の母と三人の妹のために京西陣の色町・五番町夕霧楼に自ら売られて遊女となる。