The adopted daughter of a Kyoto merchant discovers she has a twin and they were separated at birth because of an ancient superstition that twins are a bad omen.

Chieko, the daughter of a successful drygoods merchant living in Kyoto, was born a twin and abandoned as an infant along with her sister in accordance with the old superstition that twins were unlucky and unnatural. To shield her from the shame of being an abandoned twin, Chieko's parents have told her they kidnaped her from an unsuspecting mother. Chieko senses that her parents are concealing information from her, and her suspicions are confirmed when she meets an orphaned peasant girl, Naeko, who is her exact double. While both sisters are involved in love affairs, Chieko begins to feel insecure about her suitor, an educated young man whom she thinks may love the image of her sister rather than her.