Maki Yoshioka is a novelist and mother. She has been experiencing writer's block. One day, she gets into a disagreement with her neighbor Miwako Wakata over a futon. Maki gets harassed by Miawako increasingly more as the days pass. She decides to write about Miwako Wakata in a novel, but this has unexpected consequences. The small quarell becomes a media sensation.
Koichi is a son in the Suzuki family. He is a shut in who never leaves his house. He dies suddenly. The rest of the Suzuki family, father Yukio, mother Yuko and daughter Fumi fall into a state of confusion. Yuko, the mother, is so shocked by her son's death, that she loses her memory. Fumi lies to her mother and tells her "Koichi stopped being a shut in and is now working in Argentina."