Hamanaka Koichi (Nagatsuka Kyozo) returns to his wife Hisako (Baisho Mitsuko) and family in a sadder, run-down section of eastern Tokyo after having run away from home years before. He gives no explanation of his absence and his family asks no questions. It is only through the questions that a young writer named Asakura (Kamikawa Takaya), who is secretly in love with Hisako, poses of local shop owners, that we learn that Hamanaka's disappearance may be related to the fact that the woman everyone thought he would marry, Tami (Mamoi Kaori) - who runs the cafe across the street from the Hamanaka electric store - had ended up tying the knot with another man who died soon thereafter.