Model Reiko Higa is injured after being hit by a car pursued by motorcycle cop Tomishima. Tomishima's supervisor refuses his request to apologize to Reiko, as it would be an admission of police responsibility. Forced to give up her career, Reiko leaves Tokyo to return to her hometown on Okinawa, travelling by road up to Kagoshima, and Tomishima pursues her in order to apologize.

Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warden of Kabato Prison terrorizes convicts sentenced to forced labor to build the roads needed to open up the territory.