Early Summer

The Mamiya household in suburban Kamakura, a bedroom community of Tokyo, is tri-generational: Shukichi and Shige, the family patriarch and matriarch, two of their adult offspring, Koichi and Noriko (the third, Soiji, whose whereabouts are unknown due to the war or if he is even still alive), physician Koichi's housewife Fumiko, and their two precocious young sons. Twenty-eight year old Noriko is happy with her single life, working as a secretary in a Tokyo office, and hanging out with a group of female friends during their free time, they often split in life views by each's own marital status, each side advocating for their own. It's not that she doesn't ever want to get married, but she just doesn't think about it much, that is until now when, partly prompted by her aging maternal uncle's visit, many people in her midst seemingly think she should get married in getting along in years. It becomes known within this circle that Noriko's boss has given her a photograph of a forty year old friend, Manabe, who he thinks would be a good husband for her. Without even asking her what she wants, everyone has an opinion on whether Manabe would make a good match for her, those in the pro camp already having her married off. So when Noriko makes a decision on her own about what she plans for her imminent future without asking anyone for advice, they all react in how that decision affects them personally without considering her own happiness.