Novel
A seventy-year-old retired school headmaster informs his wife and daughters that he has Alzheimer’s disease. They are all concerned, but react differently due to their individual situations. The family watches as the husband and father regresses due to the disease and loses his memory. Interestingly, there are sparkling moments of his life of which the man will not let go.
Story
Following the death of the unmarried and childless Taki, Takeshi, a young relative of hers, discovers several pages of closely written lines in which the old lady has recorded her memories. This is how he learns the truth about her youth working as a housemaid and nanny for the Hirai family in a little house in Tokyo with a red gabled roof.