After achieving success as an actress, Tamae (Okada Yoshiko) returns to Japan in hopes of taking back her ex-husband Atsumi (Nara Shinyo) and their child Shigeko (Kojima Toshiko) by exploiting their recession-era circumstances: her newfound fortune and his impending bankruptcy. Despite Tamae's belief that blood is thicker than water, Atsumi's new wife Masako (Tsukuba Yukiko) has already won Shigeko's heart. Adapted from Yanagawa Shunyo's novel by screenwriter Noda Kogo, No Blood Relation is an excellent early exemplar of Naruse's interest in the relationship between love and money as it extends to shape notions of freedom and (or within, or against) the family. – Kelley Dong