In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the draining graveyard shift at a boxed-lunch factory. Burdened with chores and heavy debts and isolated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives.

In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the draining graveyard shift at a boxed-lunch factory. Burdened with chores and heavy debts and isolated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives.

A young mother among them finally cracks and strangles her philandering,gambling husband then confesses her crime to Masako, the closest of her colleagues. For reasons of her own,Masako agrees to assist her friend and seeks the help of the other co-workers to dismember and dispose of the body. The body parts are discovered, the police start asking questions, but the women have far more dangerous enemies a yakuza-connected loan shark who discovers their secret, and a ruthless nightclub owner the police are convinced is guilty of the murder. He has lost everything as a resul of their crime and he is out for revenge.