Set in Osaka in the 18th century, the film centers on the doomed romance between Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura), a down and out married paper merchant passionately in love with doe-eyed courtesan Koharu (Shima Iwashita), whom he cannot afford to buy out of servitude. Koharu herself has also fallen in love with Jihei; she even starts turning away other patrons to be with him. Their love is further imperiled by Tahei (Hosei Komatsu), a rich, obnoxious merchant who flaunts his ability to buy Koharu's indenture. Suicide is the only way for the two to be together.

Engaging story of a school teacher trying every options available to save her house from the auction block. Her predicament came about by her shiftless unemployed husband. He spent the mortgage on a gearbox for the camper (read booze), and not telling her about it. She resorted to a loan from a sleazy loan shark, who proposes outrageous ideas on how to obtain the said money to pay him back.

Based on Lord Byron's poem "Mazeppa" from 1819 and revolving around the painter Théodore Géticault, famous horse trainer and spectacle Bartabas takes art to another level.