Failing supermarket manager Goro hires the energetic Hanako, his old classmate, to help him compete with a new, rival business in town. Soon, Hanako's ideas and energy completely revitalize the store – but not without ruffling some feathers and sparking some romance along the way.
The story of the silk industry and the young girls who worked as silk spinners in the early 1900s in Japan. The silk mills were located in Okaya which lies just beyond the Nomugi Pass. The women and girls worked in a hot, humid atmosphere without rest, and endured those conditions and sexual harassment to earn money for their poor families. Across the ocean, it was the great depression in America.
