Japanese photo reporter Fukamachi accidentally comes across a camera that may well have belonged to Mallory, a famous mountaineer who disappeared in 1924. But a stranger comes along and takes the camera before Fukamachi gets a chance to see if the film is still inside. When he gets back Tokyo, the reporter finds out who the man was: Habu, a mysterious mountaineer who fell off the radar in 1985 after deserting an expedition to Everest with wounded pride.