Nozomi and Yoriko were best friends in high school but went their separate paths as adults. Fate brings them back together again as women reassessing their lives. Nozomi cut short a journalism career for marriage while Yoriko became a teacher and had a boyfriend, but neither found fulfilment and Yoriko even attempted suicide. As they reminisce about their youth they remember a promise they once made, to “go somewhere far away together someday,” and Yoriko tells her friend of a mountain rich with trees with a bell at the top which is said to bring happiness if you ring it…


Drawing from her own personal experience, NAKAZATO uses her characters to tell a universal story of a search for happiness, a journey that becomes compelling once characters are in the beautiful mountain surroundings where they might rekindle hope that life can bring happiness.