Dolls takes puppeteering as its predominant motif the sort practiced in Bunraku doll theatre performances -- opening each part of the film with a story which relates to the actions supplied by the characters that are live. Chief one of those stories is that the story of Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Sawako (Miho Kanno), a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted that their child get involved in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter. He insists, causing the unstable Sawako to be committed to a psychiatric clinic. If he leaves his new bride at the altar to rescue Sawako he understands she is so not capable of caring for himself she wants to be tied with a rope to him. Bound, both ramble through Japan, falling the others along the way who have missed love for additional fleeting pleasures: fame, power.