Suzu is a shy, everyday high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters “U”, a massive virtual world, she escapes into her online persona as Belle, a gorgeous and globally-beloved singer. One day, her concert is interrupted by a monstrous creature chased by vigilantes. As their hunt escalates, Suzu embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of this mysterious “beast” and to discover her true self in a world where you can be anyone.

Nearing the end of university, Noriko is not having much luck finding either herself or a job when her mother suddenly suggests she study tea ceremony. Noriko is cool to the idea, but her cousin Michiko likes it and suggests they both go. Nearby lives Mrs. Takeda, a tea ceremony teacher who, as people say, is not ‘your ordinary old lady.’
In the following years Noriko drifts from job to job, loses a boyfriend and then her father. The only constant in her life is the tea ceremony, in whose tightly prescribed movements and rhythms she eventually finds a unique sense of freedom.