Perfectionist thirty-something bank clerk Motoko is weighed down by the burdens of the world. Unsuccessful cartoonist Kizuna has withdrawn into herself after losing a twin sister. Child of divorced parents and an absent father, ambitionless 20-year old Yuka questions the point of life as her father leaves her the job of being the landlord of his run-down, wooden boarding house. A strict anthropology professor on campus and a mysterious, matriarch boarder, Yumiko has veiled her past while worriedly watching Yuka grow from a rosy-cheeked baby girl into a despondent youngwoman. What everyone has in common is that they all face a crossroads in life and dwell in the shabby boarding house. Her friendship with colleague Mariko forces Motoko to re-evaluate her values and outlook on life, as she shockingly finds out that Mariko has taken a wrong turn in life by embezzling 3 million yen of the company funds and is on the run. Watching Yumiko live life true to herself, the other women are gradually able to choose a path that will allow them to pursue their own interpretation of happiness.