An aging Japanese couple—Shūkichi and Tomi Hirayama—decide to travel to the big city for the first time in their lives. The reason: to reconnect with their adult children. The grown children and their spouses have carved out lives of their own, and it very quickly becomes apparent that they are far more interested in those concerns than they are in meeting the burden of pretending to be interested in their mother and father.
In fact, the only member of the extended family who seems to have any time at all for the old could is Noriko, the widow of their second son Shōji. Noriko alone manifests any expressions of happiness at their arrival and she alone makes efforts to spend time with them. Only the daughter-in-law married to a son no longer alive extends to the aging father and mother of her deceased husband the legendary Japanese hospitality and regard for the elderly.
Ultimately, Noriko becomes the symbol for Shūkichi and Tomi of the striking cultural contrast between tradition and modernity and between simple small town life and the hustle and bustle of the overpopulated urban jungle. Even more to the point is the stark contrast she presents to their own children. Soon enough that contrast is heightened and intensified when their son and daughter offer to send them to a resort. The offer is extended as gift to provide them with a more enjoyable vacation than they are receiving inside the homes of their busy big city offspring, but it is very clear that the resort is just a way to get rid of them.
While at the resort, Tomi’s frail health takes a turn for the worst; the result is the she dies not long after returning home. This turn of events also results in a twist of plot: now it is the big city kids who forced to come to the small town. The stay is as short as they can get away with; respects are paid and soon they are off on their way back to the big city.
All leave except for Noriko, who stays behind to care for Shūkichi and provide comfort. The newly widowed father-in-law reveals that he is not in need of comfort and is content to live a solitary life; he has achieved a wistful acceptance of the impermanence of the existence.
