The story takes plays during the annual Good Friday pageant in a tiny Italian village. Local priest Don Vincenzo faces a crisis when the girl selected to play the Virgin Mary shows up pregnant.
A handsome newcomer in a village marries a local girl. A year or so later an abandoned baby is left on the couple's doorstep, a baby the man had with another woman.
Kunisada Tadaharu, a peasant of Kunisada Village in Joshu Sai County, could not stand the bad government and poor harvest of Takebe Genhan, the governor of the time.