As a young boy, the bespectacled Jiro Horikoshi dreams of flying a plane but when he learns he will be unable to become a pilot due to his poor eyesight, he instead decides to be an aircraft designer. On September 1st 1923 Jiro is travelling by train when the Great Kanto earthquake strikes. He assists fellow passenger Naoko and her maid who suffers an injury. He doesn't meet Naoko again till many years later and the two fall in love but she is suffering from tuberculosis and while they try to find out more...

A young girl is sent to the country for health reasons, where she meets an unlikely friend in the form of Marnie, a young girl with flowing blonde hair. As the friendship unravels it is possible that Marnie has closer ties to the protagonist than we might expect.