
An industrialist is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is abroad in Europe at the time, and a glimpse of a Japanese woman in that setting causes him to imagine her as the personification of his impending fate. As his dialogue with his imagined mortality continues, he meets the living woman, the template for his fantasy, and together, they tour rural churches. Gradually, he comes to some kind of peace about the diagnosis. When he returns to Japan, he is met with a series of challenges that profoundly test the lessons he has learned.

Shin Saburi
Tajihei Itsuki

Keiko Kishi
Madame Marcelin

Gō Katō
Narrator
Hisashi Igawa
Funazu

Mayumi Ogawa
Akiko Itsuki

Komaki Kurihara
Kiyoko Itsuki

Kei Yamamoto
Akihiko Kishi

Orie Satō
Kishi's wife

Seiji Miyaguchi
Sunami

Haruko Sugimura
Itsuki's stepmother

Ichirō Nakatani
Taisuke (Itskuki's brother)

Yoshio Inaba
Toyoshima
Sue Mitobe
Itsuki family's maid

Jūkichi Uno
Tappei Yakubi

Shigeru Kōyama
Dr. Kihara