In 1945, Ezure Tetsu flees her home in Sakhalin with her two sons to escape the Soviet army invasion. They make it to Abashiri City, Hokkaido. In 1971, her younger son Shujiro returns to Abashiri for the first time in fifteen years and resolves to care for the aging and impoverished Tetsu. However, Tetsu is besieged by the aftershocks of post-trauma stress disorder caused by wartime trauma.