A girl dies and a ghost who died 80 years ago tries to convince her to come back to life instead of remaining a ghost.

After two-month-old kitten Chibi-neko is abandoned by her former owners, she is found by 18-year-old Tokio. Although his mother is allergic to cats and has a great fear of them, she agrees to let him keep the kitten because she fears he is becoming too withdrawn after failing his university entrance exams. Chibi-neko soon falls in love with Tokio. In her own mind, Chibi-neko is a small human who speaks in human words, although people only ever seem to hear her meow, and she believes that all humans were once kittens like her. A stray cat tells Chibi-neko of a paradise called Cottonland, where dreams can come true.

The Rinkaiji family, by all appearances, is a well-to-do Japanese family. The father, Nariyuki, works in an elite corporation, which gives his wife Yoshiko status in their suburban neighborhood. But the daughter Sugina, who herself has secretly stopped going to school because she is being bullied. One day, they discover that Nariyuki has quit his job. As Nariyuki decides to find a new job along with Sugina, Yoshiko, a firm believer in a life based on the company, soon finds her world falling apart.