Saichi "Immortal" Sugimoto, a Russo-Japanese War veteran, pans for gold in Hokkaido to provide for the widow of his dead comrade Toraji. His acquaintance Gotō drunkenly tells him the story of Nopperabo, a man who killed a group of Ainu and stole their trove of gold, hiding its location in a map tattooed across twenty-four escaped prisoners. Sugimoto doubts the story, until a sober Gotō attempts to kill him...