School teachers responsible for the lives of their students work to evacuate Allied bombings near the end of WWII.

In a military family, an illegitimate son is brutalized by his brothers. A patriarchal, feudalistic household where dissent is forbidden is used to reveal the whole imperialist system that afflicted Japan between 1921 and 1946.

機関車のカマ焚きの青年が主人公の物語で、氷室和敏の原作を、「氷壁」の新藤兼人が脚色、「異母兄弟」の家城巳代治が監督した青春篇。撮影は「季節風の彼方に」の宮島義男。「奴の拳銃は地獄だぜ」の江原真二郎、「鴬城の花嫁」の丘さとみ、「清水港の名物男　遠州森の石松」の中原ひとみ、「炎上」の仲代達矢らが出演している。

The Wayside Pebble is an effective drama about the hardships of a childhood spent with a brusque, cold-hearted father and a submissive mother. The year is 1910 and the place is a small Japanese village. Goichi is suffering because he wants to go to school, but his family is too poor to afford that luxury. Even when a kind friend agrees to help out, Goichi’s father refuses to give in to his son’s request for an education. Instead, he sends Goichi off to work as an indentured servant for a cold-hearted merchant and his family. As tragedy strikes and the suffering of the young boy increases, he begins to look for some way out of his bleak situation.

A youthful film depicting the sexual awakening of a boy who has just entered adolescence and his heartbreaking romance during the summer holidays with a young sprightly girl.