Nao Kitazawa’s life is good. She is busy working as a doctor at a women’s clinic, and will be getting married in a month to Yuichi Ihara, an older doctor who fits her ideal characteristics of a perfect marriage partner. However, on the day of her move to her new home, she meets Shinji Mamiya, a part-time mover, and is instantly love-struck. After Nao’s aggressive approach, Shinji soon starts to feel the same way. When Nao’s mother, Kaoru, finds out about their mutual feelings, she instantly disapproves saying that their background and level of education are just too different. Just around this time, Nao starts to show signs of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease…

Country bumpkin Haruko only ever wanted to become a maiko, an apprentice geisha. Initially rebuffed for lack of references, Haruko's strong accent intrigues a linguistics professor, who undertakes to coach her.

The fairy tale follows a young man named Gusukō in the Tōhoku forests of northeastern Japan in the 1920s. After an onslaught of droughts and natural disasters, Gusukō is forced to leave his home and search for a better life elsewhere. Gusukō joins a group of scientists at the Ihatov Volcano Department, which deals with the same natural disasters that drove Gusukō from his home.

A bored accountant spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.