Three American late teens travel to Japan to escape a sad past and have some fun but end up trapped in a house with a demented Japanese host family who plans to offer them to their gods in a sick ancient Japanese ritual.
A Japanese family deteriorates under media scrutiny after their youngest son's political abduction becomes national news.
Newspaper reporter Machiko Iari meets middle-schooler Takashi Oka at a coin laundry she frequents. Gradually, Machiko begins to feel that Takashi has the same mood about him as Yoshiko, a close friend from her childhood days.
