In 1950, in postwar Japan, a former student turned hustler approaches a school principal with a plan to solve their financial problems by making counterfeit money. Undeterred when she shows him the door, he recruits the village headsman, who made fake Chinese bank notes under the auspices of the Japanese military during the war, as well as a local papermaker and photographer who have the skills required for counterfeiting. Before long the scheme is well established. And, given that the government itself made funny money not long ago, he tries to continues to try to convince the principal that ordinary people should be able to do the same out of desperation. The sad eyes of the book-starved students give her the answer and she starts to raise money to buy a printing press