A woman is raped and her husband is killed in the forests by a small town in the feudal Japan of twelve hundred years ago. There are four eye-witnesses, each of whom tells the story the way they have seen it, each of their stories being different in slight, but vital, details. Just what is truth, when each person believes they are giving the investigating policeman all the facts? One of director Akira Kurosawa's most intriguing movies, substituting the flamboyant swordsmanship and dramatic battles of his other period-set films for a rational and engrossing mystery, in which each of the characters believes they have the genuine solution to the murder mystery, but each has a slightly different point of view. A Samurai movie with little swordplay, this is a gripping and impressive production.