In the countryside village of Asahigaoka, a fifth grade elementary school girl named Hotaru Ichijou moves in from the city and transfers into the village’s branch school, which consists of only four other students; a first grader named Renge Miyauchi and three middle school siblings, Natsumi, Komari and Suguru Koshigaya, along with their teacher, Renge’s older sister Kazuho. After school, Renge invites Hotaru and the others to her house, where she shows off her pet tanuki. The next day, the girls take Hotaru to a blooming cherry blossom tree to eat their sakuramochi, though they end up missing the bus home on the way back.

Natsumi’s mother asks Natsumi to go catch something to live in the family’s pond, and Natsumi agrees when she’s told she’ll be paid. She lends Natsumi a watch and tells her to be home by curfew, and all the kids go out for a day of fishing. Later, Konomi sees that Natsumi still doesn’t seem like a girl at all even now that she’s in middle school, and brings some of her old outfits over for her to try on…