The Yazawa family consists of the father Takuro (Koji Yakusho) – who is always busy day trading, charming wife Erumi (Satomi Kobayashi), and teenage son Tetsuya (Eita) – who dreams of becoming an astronaut. The family is also joined by Saburo Akiba (Junichi Sawayashiki), a good-natured teen recently released from a juvenile corrections facility. Then one day Tetsuya falls into a coma from a car accident. A chain of events is set to occur set-off by the father taking a phone call from an unsuspecting girl named Hikari. The father pretends to be his son Tokuya…

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He’s sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan’s most powerful clan leader. He’s also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skilful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year’s time but rejects Shogun’s patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He’s followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu’s forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan’s greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region’s finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school’s followers. While Otsu waits, Akemi also seeks him, expressing her desires directly. Meanwhile, Takezo is observed by Sasaki Kojiro, a brilliant young fighter, confident he can dethrone Takezo. After leaving Kyoto in triumph, Takezo declares his love for Otsu, but in a way that dishonors her and shames him. Once again, he leaves alone.

In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of Shikotan became part of the Sakhalin Oblast… and on the unhealed border in this remote corner of the world, friendship among children from two different countries timidly blossomed, striving to overcome language barriers and the waves of history. Inspired by true events.