Unokichi, a student at the School of Fine Arts, narrates his encounter with the retired Tsukakoshi and his mistress Fumiko. The old merchant, passionate about the beauty of his mistress's foot, commissions the young painter to depict Fumiko in a Western style, but in the manner of an old Japanese engraving, in a pose that highlights the unique sensuality of the woman being portrayed. His obsession with a specific part of her body, her feet, will become so intense that it will drive him to the brink of madness.

"Fumiko's Foot" remains the most representative of Tanizaki's early works that explore aspects of what was then termed "perverse" sexuality.