Tells of the childhood of nine-year-old twins in a rural village in Japan after World War 2. Includes the boys’ relationships with their schoolteacher mother, civil servant father, elderly landlord, a rough new boy at the school, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women.

Seizo (Keigo Matsuyama) and his twin brother, Yukihiko (Shogo Matsuyama), have just moved to a small village and love to run amok, away from the watchful eye of their mother (Mieko Harada). The boys become so accustomed to causing trouble that the townspeople begin to regard them with disdain and suspicion. The brothers, who become friends with a boy who has been shunned because he is poor, weave magical aspects into their adventures as they revel in the joys of childhood.