A mother searches for her missing son after a devastating calamity, only to realize that she has died and is now confined to a realm of restless spirits.

Spring 1991. Takaki and Akari meet in elementary school and continue to exchange letters even after she moves away. They make a final promise to each other to meet again. It is now 2008. They live their respective lives, paths never crossing. Enduring memories and a premonition of that promised day. Even now, their words from that day drift quietly, transcending time and distance. An ephemeral story of a promised reunion with someone precious.

In the middle of a riverside park stands a single bench. One evening, a couple of childhood friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while meet up at this bench. Although awkward at times, they sit there exchanging gentle words of affection.

Nagasaki, 1964: Following the death of his yakuza father, 15-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wing of a famous kabuki actor. Alongside Shunsuke, the actor’s only son, he decides to dedicate himself to this traditional form of theatre. For decades, the two young men grow and evolve together – and one will become the greatest Japanese master of the art of kabuki.

It is only at their sister's and mother's funeral when a woman meets her niece after many years. The niece is now a grown girl. The sister takes on the task of informing the deceased's friends of the death while the daughter cannot bring herself to symbolically accept the demise of her mother. In the midst of all this an old flame messages the sister to say he is still in love with her, but is he messaging the living sister or the dead one?