Sunao Katabuchi directs this Japanese animated feature based on the novelisation of Nobuko Takagi's autobiography. Millennia ago, Hofu City in the Yamaguchi prefecture was the site of the ancient capital city Suo no Kuni, the only remnants of which are a few scattered ruins. In 1955, a young girl named Shinko (voice of Mayuko Fukuda) spends her time in her elementary school and exploring the fields of her quiet little town. She constantly fantasises about the way her home must have been a thousand years before and when Shinko befriends another girl who has moved from Tokyo, Kiiko (Nako Mizusawa), they both gain a magical insight into that ancient world.