A sequel of sorts to Giacomo Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, this is the story of the child of U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton and Cio-Cio-san, the lieutenant's fifteen-year-old contract bride during his brief stationing in Nagasaki. Raised in the United States, Tom learns of his Japanese mother only at age twenty. He is troubled and goes to Japan to search for his Japanese soul. He finds love in Kyoto's Gion, but the ruthless industrialist who claims the young maiko as his protege feels dishonored and declares that only their deaths will satisfy him.