The movie begins in a small fishing village in 1920s Japan. Chiyo and her older sister are bought from their homes. Her sister is sold to a brothel and Chiyo is brought as a servant to one of the geisha-houses in Kyoto instead. To make matters worse, the house's geisha Hatsumomo goes out of her way to make Chiyo's life miserable. Luckily, a fellow-serving girl named Pumpkin befriends Chiyo and gives her hope. If she does all that she is told, she may attend school and eventually attain freedom by becoming a geisha herself. Driven to despair by Hatsumomo and about to give up, Chiyo happens to meet The Chairman. The Chairman shows Chiyo a small kindness, and Chiyo falls in love. She makes it her lifelong goal to be the kind of geisha worthy of his attention. Chiyo continues to attend school and is taken under the wing of Mameha, an expert geisha who is also Hatsumomo's hated enemy. As Mameha's apprentice, Chiyo's name becomes Sayuri and she blossoms into a geisha more beautiful and talented than even Hatsumomo. But when WWII splits the geisha district of Kyoto apart, Sayuri escapes and ceases being a geisha. It is when she returns to post-WWII Gion to resume her geisha lifestyle that Sayuri meets again with The Chairman to try once again to win his love.