 Tired of being poor, Noshu, a newspaperman abandons his scruples and starts to make money as a black marketeer. He gains his fortune but ruins his brother s life causing him to lose his job, his home and his wife whilst simultaneously losing his own self-respect and that of his former neighbours and his girl. Tormented by his conscience, he writes an expose of the illegal trade but cannot prevent his own brother becoming a victim when an epidemic rages unchecked because criminals have stock-piled all the medicine.