Plot
In 1982, Taeko Okajima lives in Tokyo as an unmarried office worker that enjoys visiting the rural countryside. She decides to take another trip to visit her eldest sister Nanako's in-laws to help with the safflower harvest. While traveling at night on a sleeper train to Yamagata, she begins to recall memories of herself as a ten-year-old schoolgirl in 1966, and her intense desire to go on holiday like her classmates, all of whom have family outside of the big city. This precipitates a series of memories from the same school year, including her first crush, the first time she and her family ate a pineapple (which was hard, as it was unripe), and how she learned about and indirectly dealt with puberty.
When Taeko arrives, she is surprised to find that her brother-in-law's second cousin Toshio, whom she barely knows, is the one who came to pick her up. Toshio himself moved back from the city to become a farmer and help his family, but became passionate about farming and decided to stay. Taeko continues to reflect on the memories of her ten-year-old self, and tells her family about them. When she sees her young cousin Naoko unsuccessfully ask her mother for Puma sneakers, Taeko tells her about how she once similarly wanted a purse. Her elder sister Yaeko was asked to give her an old one, the ensuing argument continues, culminating in a sulking Taeko becoming indecisive about whether to join her family to go out for food. In a moment of panic she runs after her family outside of the house but is slapped by her father for walking outside without shoes (an indicator of poverty in post-War Japan). Taeko reflects that she was partially in the wrong herself for begging for more things, convincing Naoko to move on.
Later, when having lunch with Toshio, Taeko recalls about how she always struggled with the concept of fractions in school, and asks him if he ever similarly struggled with something. Toshio mentions his compulsion as a farmer has troubled him due to the industry dying out, and muses how the entire rural landscape was built by farmers in spite of this. Seeing how they all connect with each other, Taeko realizes that the rural country is making her nostalgic, and that her memories are wielding a tapestry for her present self to reminisce on. With this, she recalls to Toshio and Naoko about how she once discovered a talent for acting and was nearly cast in a university play, only for her father to shut the idea down, making the rest of the family crestfallen; by high school Taeko moved on, discovering that drama was not her passion.
On the eve of Taeko's departure, Toshio's grandmother – sensing Taeko wishes to stay – suddenly suggests that Taeko stay in the country and marry Toshio, flustering her. As she runs out of the house to be alone, she recalls her brief encounter with an ill-mannered, working class kid. Forced to sit next to him at school, she is the only one who treats him with kindness and dignity, even as she hates being around him and her friends bad-mouth him. When he moves schools, however, she is the only person he refuses to shake hands with. Toshio soon finds Taeko in the rain, and she tells him about the same kid as he drives her back. Toshio bluntly suggests that he may have liked her, while also implying his own feelings for her. Realizing how easy it is to talk with Toshio, Taeko starts to realize her own feelings for him.
Taeko leaves the next day, promising to visit again in the winter. As she sits on the train, however, she is approached by the memories of all her classmates including her past self, who wordlessly convince her that what she really wants is to stay. She gets off the train and meets with Toshio, who drives her back as her past self looks on.
