In the spring of 1956, roughly ten years after the end of the Pacific War, a new teacher named Rieko Sakamoto is assigned to an elementary school in Kiba, downtown Tokyo. At the same time, Shizu Miyanaga, a bright, pretty transfer student from Kobe, joins class 4 of the sixth grade. Shizu dreams of becoming a singer and, with both athletic and academic abilities, quickly becomes the center of everyone’s attention. Akira, the son of a joiner and the class president, begins to develop a special feeling for Shizu.