Kaido is a professional pickpocket who works the Tokyo subway with his young foster-daughter, Rei: She lets herself be groped while Kaido relieves the groper of his wallet. More often than not they're observed by a middle-aged cop, who generally lets Kaido go free. Rei is unsettled when Kaido takes on a young street punk, Kazuki, as an apprentice -- with instructions to make Kaido stop drinking. Kazuki, however, would like to go into business with Rei.

Jin (Yakusho), a young, widowed police detective who is thinking of leaving the force to better take care of his 8 year old daughter Misaki (Kanno), by chance arrests Neko (Emoto), an accomplished middle aged burglar who has just fixed Misaki's bicycle. After Neko has several weeks to see Jin in the interrogation room, he decides to confess to Jin and teach him how to become a capable detective and worthy adversary. By the time Neko serves his 10 year sentence, Jin is a highly regarded detective and they can they start their contest in earnest.

The film begins in the present, with its heroine, Kaoru, a grown-up woman working as a real-estate agent, while helping out the folksy proprietor of a neighborhood fishing pond. There she meets a shy girl who needs her help baiting a hook and reminds her of herself in the fourth grade.