 Kasahara Natsuki is a thirty year-old hairdresser from Tokyo who comes to Sapporo to relax and enjoy a vacation during the 2000 New Year s Eve festival/party. Unfortunately, she gets locked out of her room and meets Kaede Soichirou, a 25 year-old local newspaper photographer. His kind nature impresses her, but they don t exchange personal information and write it off as a chance meeting. Like all women her age, Natsuki s worried about finding shiawase (lifelong happiness) by marrying and starting a family. When she goes to a matchmaking meeting, the friend of her would-be beau is none other than Soichirou. After that meeting takes a turn for the worst, Soichirou follows her out and cheers her up by taking her up for a ride in his single-engine plane. They part company once more, still not knowing each other s names, and write it off as a chance meeting. Arriving home, Natsuki s roommate Haruko announces that her brother Soichirou will be staying with them in their house, after being transferred to Tokyo s newspaper.