A retired couple, Shūkichi and Tomi Hirayama (played by Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama), live in the town Onomichi, Hiroshima in southwest Japan with their daughter Kyōko (played by Kyōko Kagawa), who is a primary-school teacher. They have five adult children, four living. The couple travel to Tokyo to visit their son, daughter and widowed daughter-in-law.