Plot Summary

An elementary schoolgirl comes to terms with the loss of her mother and changes in her family over the final summer in her hometown before moving away. 10-year-old Misaki is a precocious, sensitive girl who still feels the presence of her late mother at home. Misaki sets a place for her mom at the table and won’t let anybody sit in her chair. Her father now has a new girlfriend and wants the family to move on as best they can, but accepts that Misaki takes life at a different pace than her older sister. Misaki’s hobby is pottery and she receives lessons with a local potter, feeling solace when shaping the clay in her hands. After accidentally breaking a classmate’s artwork at school, Misaki runs away from home. That evening she inadvertently joins a traditional obon festival procession and has an unexpected encounter...