Sawaki is an elite bureaucrat and Lemon is an exotic hostess. Accustomed to achievement and privilege, Sawaki's arrogance and ruthlessness have now been tempered by humility due to an incident which ruined his promising career. Lemon's once happy, simple life as wife and mother has been crushed by her husband's death. After a chance encounter, Sawaki and Lemon, though occupying opposite positions in society, decide to travel together to Lemon's home island, Hokkaido, where Sawaki can find "a beautiful place to die." When their voyage takes an unexpected turn towards death, each learns from the other what makes life worth living.