During the 20s in Japan, a romantic student at Tokyo's Waseda University is filled with noble sentiments absorbed from literature but his naive illusions will be shattered by the ruthless realities of money and power.

Chiyokichi, a young man, hates Cooper, a white man who looks down on the Japanese. Chiyokichi picks Cooper’s pocket and is caught. He is brought to Cooper’s house and becomes his slave, and a riveting tale of passion, hatred, and revenge unfolds.

A man rises in society by cheating, but the institutions in turn take their revenge.

The Morning Sun Shines is a fiction-documentary film by Kenji Mizoguchi and Seiichi Ina. The film is a combination of a drama about a reporter, and documentary footage about newspaper production. Only 25 minutes of footage has survived.