Natsuko lives her dream as a copy writer for an advertising company in Tokyo. But when she hits a slump in her career, she returns to her family's sake brewery in the countryside. There she discovers her older brother has been hunting down a phantom rice called tatsunishiki, believing it to be ideal for creating a new sake. He finds the rice seeds he needs to begin his new sake, but right after Natsuko returns to Tokyo with her spirits renewed, he passes away suddenly. Despite new success at her job, she decides to quit and return home to continue her brother's dream. What begins is a several years long journey, first to cultivate the notoriously difficult to grow tatsunishiki, and then to perfect the brewing process of her new sake.