Successful writer Kosaku Igami heads a family composed almost exclusively of women. Taking his work very seriously, he conscripts his daughters into assembling his editions, showing little sympathy for the photographic aspirations of youngest daughter Kotoko.Kosaku harbors deep resentment toward his mother for leaving him behind when she emigrated to Taiwan after the war: This resentment has colored his life and fostered his art, also occasioning primal flashbacks to the moment of his abandonment.Kosaku’s reminiscences mirror his inner journey, while daughter Kotoko, clandestinely keeping tabs on her dad’s difficulties, functions as the hidden observer of his feelings.The death of Kosaku’s father casts responsibility for his mother on the family, her outspoken criticism and bouts of senility driving Kosaku’s sisters crazy. Yet as her dementia worsens, the manifestations of the disease grow distinctly more fanciful; family annoyance transforms into amusement and the film’s period stateliness into gentle comedy. At the same time, the old lady’s wandering spells reveal the true reasons for her long-ago choice, changing Kosaku’s vision of her and bringing the entire brood closer around her care