Miho and Toshio, putting their children and household at stake, duel for control in their degrading, middle-aged marriage.

Rica and Kengo have been living together for the past four years. It's been a very happy time for Rica; the only dark spot being an accident she caused during a shoot for a commercial in which Kengo's good friend, Shibata, nearly lost his life. The memory of this event weighs heavily on Rica's conscience. One night Kengo tells Rica that he has fallen in love with a charming but inscrutable woman named Hanako.

Sukezo, a former manga comic artist, takes up the art rock business by setting up a shop in a shed by the river. He tries hard to be successful, but business does not go well and the family becomes progressively poorer.

Rin Jyoshima lost her father to death-by-gambling; years later, she's grown up in the Kosugi household and has fallen victim to gambling herself.

In the middle of the desert, a solipsistic Japanese-American woman, along with her elderly and paralysed friend Barbara, runs the Desert Rose Cafe. Things liven up with the arrival of a mafia henchman (whose boss is hiding out at a nearby ranch), a battered Japanse man (who turns out to be a terrific chef, but who also triggers Barbara's memories of internment during WWII), and an attack on the mob boss' camp.

Koji Wakamatsu adapted Kouhei Tsuka's play of the same name into a human comedy about the members of a traveling acting troupe.

A successful office lady, who has made herself sexually available to a doctor, has her routine disrupted when her former boyfriend's son appears in her life. She is not connected to the boy, but his father has been in an accident.