 In Japan of the 20 s, the nine years old Chyio and her sister Satsu are sold by her fisherman father to a Geisha house in Miyako. Satsu is not accepted in the house and is sent to a brothel, and along the years, Satsu escapes from he brothel where she lived and the rebel Chyio is left alone, becoming a slave of a geisha. However, six years later, she learns how to become the geisha Sayuri with the support of the successful Mameha, while fighting against the evil and jealousy of the wicked Hatsumomo. While still a child, Chyio falls in love with The Chairman, and in the post-WWII, they meet each other, in a period o changes in Japan with the occupying American forces and the country completely destroyed.