Meiji 44th year. Meiko is the daughter of Daigo, who owns a western restaurant in Tokyo. She loves to eat the omelette prepared by Daigo, and the nukaduke (pickles) prepared by her mother, Iku. Theirs is a warm, close knitted family, and Meiko's love for food grows with age. Even now, when she is in an all-girls' high school, her mind is filled with thoughts of food all the time. Due to that, Yutaro, the university student who is boarding at the Uno's home, scathingly calls Meiko, "a person with no charms whatsoever". However, as Meiko changes from someone who loves to eat, to a person who loves to prepare food for others to eat, she starts to display an inner strength as foretold by her mother and her grandmother.
"To crave for food, is to have the will to live; the stronger the craving, the greater the will".
Those are the words that help to encourage Meiko and her loved ones as they go through all the trials and tribulations in their lives.