After being a victim of rape within their own home, Diana chooses to keep the trauma secret. Mario, her husband, also has something to hide. The silence takes the couple's account over the day turns gradually into a peculiar form of violence.

After being deceived by a small time crook with a promise of a job for his family, Bernardino Jabá (Amácio Mazzaropi), his wife Marcolina Jabá (Geny Prado), their two sons, their daughter and their Spanish friend are mistaken as being "cangaceiros" (bandits from the Northeastern of Brazil). They help the police to arrest the outlaws, but Bernardino Jabá misses and is considered dead. When he returns to the small village one year later, the locals believe that it is his soul indeed.

Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.