The Kitanippon Shimbun

Domestic drama focusing on a soon to be retired train driver and his wife.

In August, 1918, Matsuura Ito lives in a coastal village of Toyama with her husband and three children. During the summer, there wasn't much fish to catch, so her husband has been far away from home to catch fish. To support herself and her children, Ito carries goods from ships like the other women in the village. Meanwhile, the residents encounter rising prices for rice. The women are unable to feed their family due to the high prices of rice. The women ask a nearby rice store to sell rice at lower prices, but it fails. The price of rice continues to rise daily. Due to an incident, Ito and the other village women step up to the plate.

The first-person protagonist is a 27-year-old freelance writer who returns to her hometown from Tokyo, and she gets together with high school friend Satsuki and cameraman Suga to see Shiina, who they all admired in high school. Along the way, vivid memories from high school replay in the protagonist's mind.

During the Edo period, a gifted swordsman was exiled from his clan when he questioned the misconduct of his leader. Years after, his dying wife wish was for him to go back to his clan.

Toru grew up in alpine countryside around Mount Tate. As a child, he resented the yearly trek up the mountain with his father to prepare their mountain hut for the summer season of climbers. When Toru grows up, he leaves his hometown and enters the working world as a stock trader. One day, Toru receives word that his father has passed away. He returns to Mount Tate once again, and becomes conscious of a new calling. But, does Toru have what it takes to follow in his father’s footsteps?

A detective in Toyama is forced to confront his painful past when he takes on a murder case involving his two estranged childhood friends.

Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this story of friendship and compassion: In the night of 16 September 1890 the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks off the Japanese coast. Risking their own lives, local villagers are able to rescue 69 Turkish sailors. Although being very poor and having hardly to eat, the villagers share what little they have with strangers from a country 9,000 kilometers away. 95 years later, during the Iran-Iraq War, more than 300 Japanese are stranded in Tehran. In the morning of 19 March 1985 a Turkish Airlines aircraft takes off for Tehran to evacuate the Japanese. But the remaining Turks at Tehran Mehrabad Airport still need to be convinced that they won't be able to board their own country's rescue flight.

Ai Kishimoto, Yukari Miyazawa and Akane Kishimoto are sisters. The sisters live apart in Kanazawa, Toyama and Tokyo, but they gather together to attend their grandmother's funeral. There, they learn about their mother whom they know as deceased. While seeking out the the truth about their mother, the sisters face their own problems, but take a courageous step forward.