In the 1930s, a schoolteacher named Gakuen (Tsutomo Yamazaki), while searching for his missing friend Akira (Go Kato), comes upon a mysterious, drought-stricken village beside a pond. After asking for food from a beautiful young woman named Yuri (played by the noted onnagata performer Tamasaburo Bando), Gakuen discovers that she is married to Akira, who is also the keeper of the village bell. Unless it is struck three times a day, a spirit that dwells in the pond, the Dragon Princess (also played by Bando), will flood the town and kill all its inhabitants. When the Dragon Princess receives an offer of marriage from a prince, she offers to leave the pond in exchange for a human sacrifice, and Yuri is chosen as the victim.