豪雨で汽車の止まったホームで待つ男、そして待合室で待つ女、彼らは神田明神を見つめながら昔のことを思い出す。その男、秦宗吉は田舎から出てきたが絶望し、自殺しようとしていたところをその女、お千に助けられたのだった。お千は情夫に悪事の片棒を担がされながら、宗吉を生きがいとして生きるようになっていき、宗吉も苦しい生活を送りながら、医者になるという夢を果たそうと努力するが…
泉鏡花の『売色鴨南蛮』を溝口が映画化。溝口最後のサイレンと作品で、音楽と活弁士・松井翠声の解説とが録音されたサウンド版として製作された。また、溝口の第一映画移籍第一作に当たり、この作品以降山田五十鈴とのコンビでヒット作を連発した。

“Oyuki, the [Virgin] is based on Kawaguchi Matsutaro’s adaptation of Maupassant’s “Boule de Suif” [“Lump of Fat,” also the inspiration for Ford’s Stagecoach]. To this story Mizoguchi added some of his own elements. Maupassant’s original work, set during the Franco-Prussian War, is the story of a group of people who try to flee the battleground in a horsedrawn carriage. The bourgeois use the expression “lump of fat” to refer sarcastically to the prostitute who is riding along with them. When they are caught by the enemy, they offer to send her to the commander as a human sacrifice. This done, when they leave the battlefield the next day, all they do is censure her and call her vulgar.
The scene shifts to the Seinan war in Kyushu. At one stage, government forces are seen trying to control the carriage. As a new element to the original story the film shows these forces being defeated in battle. The commander flees and hides in the home of the female protagonist, a saké server.
The original work is a critique of bourgeois selfishness. [Oyuki] is shown as a humble woman, protected by a young man out to make a success of himself in the world, a Mizoguchi theme so visible in other films.”
--Tadao Sato, Kenji Mizoguchi and the Art of Japanese Cinema