Synopsis
Spring 1936. Rin is about to be wed to a man she’s never met, arranged by her stern father according to traditional custom. Having graduated from girls’ school, she’s a progressive thinker, and harbors doubts about the restrictive life of a woman in her time. Distraught at a decision that wasn’t hers, and uncertain about the groom she’s never met, Rin runs away on her wedding day, still dressed in her bridal outfit…
Summer in the 1960s. Rin has three grown daughters. The eldest, Kaoru, tries to recover from the trauma of losing her husband to a car accident, while the second daughter, Midori, is a feminist wavering between her professional career and the prospect of marriage. The youngest, Sato, has a heart condition, and braces for her own death as she prepares to give birth to her second child. The journeys of the three women are set against the backdrop of the rapid economic growth of postwar Japan.
It’s winter in the present day. Sato’s elder daughter, Kana, has moved to Tokyo to pursue her dream of becoming a pianist, but must come to terms with her shortcomings as well as a pregnancy with a man who’d just dumped her. The younger daughter, Kei, is married with a child, and always wears a smile. There’s a reason for her cheerful exuberance, though—she’s determined to live for the mother she had never met.