Story: One day in 1934, a young Urano Suzu who lives in the Eba district of Hiroshima City in Hiroshima Prefecture, is drawing by the riverside while on her way home from running an errand. She gets caught by a kidnapper. However, she succeeds in escaping due to the quick wits of a young boy Shusaku who was caught earlier. Suzu gets home safely but the events of this day seem like a dream to her … … Time passes. In the autumn of 1943, Suzu is helping out at the home of her grandmother Ito together with her younger sister Sumi, when her aunt rushes in. She received news that someone has come to Suzu’s house in Eba to ask for her hand in marriage. A confused Suzu hurries back home. Along the way, she meets her childhood friend Mizuhara Tetsu who has gone on to the naval academy. She thinks that Tetsu must be the person. At that moment, Hojo Shusaku and his father Entaro are waiting at the Urano residence for Suzu to come back home. Shusaku says he has met Suzu before, but she has no recollection of it. She has a hard time imagining herself as a wife, but before it all sinks in, her father Juro and mother Kiseno accept the proposal and begin preparations. Suzu’s grandmother gives her a beautiful kimono to take with her to her new home. She marries Hojo Shusaku and moves to Kure City in the middle of the Pacific War. As Japan slides into a war it cannot get out of, the townspeople go on with their “ordinary” lives. Supplies are short, and family and friends get sent to the battlefield, casting a dark cloud over war-time Hiroshima. Suzu and the Hojo family battle such anxieties as they try to live each day with positivity.
