As the mother of the bishop of Yokawa was taken ill, he descended the mountain to see her. His disciples found an expanse of white behind the Uji temple. They brought their torches and approached the figure. It was a girl with long and lustrous hair leaning against the root of a tree. They tried to take her clothes off to find out whether she was human or a fox, which had taken a human shape. Then she wept bitterly. It was not a fox but Ukifune. The bishop took her to his sister who lived as a nun in the Ono village.

Autumn came in the village of Ono. The maidservants raised their voices happily with local songs while cutting rice at the gate. The clacking of the scarecrows brought Ukifune, who had recovered, memories of her girlhood in the remote East Country. At night, the nuns started playing kotos and invited her to join in. She was not good at tasteful pleasures. She only took up a brush and set down a poem about her miserable destiny. She was left alone with her thoughts.

The old nun had a son-in-law who was a guard captain. Since he had seen Ukifune briefly, he had been unable to forget her back in the city. But it was too early to write a letter. Toward the middle of the Eighth Month, on a falconing expedition, he again visited Ono. He met the nun and told her that he was fond of a girl like Ukifune who was not talkative. She said "Ukifune wants to say goodbye to the world. But I think it would be difficult for a girl to abandon her long future."

The nun had lost her child a long time ago. So she thought of Ukifune as her own girl. She made a pilgrimage to Hatsuse to show her gratitude. During her absence, just as the moon came flooding over the hills, the captain appeared. The girl fled aghast to the rear of the house. The younger nun Shosho urged Ukifune to greet him, saying "You are not sympathetic. At least hear what he has to say." Knowing that the nun was away, he grumbled persistently over her stubbornness. She recited a poem, but at the end fled to the old nun’s room.