Eleven‑year‑old Hotaru Itizō moved from Tokyo to a true Japanese countryside—so remote that the nearest bookstore is an hour away by train. The customs here are simple; no one locks doors—why would they, when everyone knows each other to the seventh degree? It is needless to say that at the rural school all of the local children attend a single classroom: first‑grader Renge, seventh‑grader Natsumi, her sister eighth‑grader Komari, and their older brother Suguru who is a year ahead. And now the fifth‑grader Hotaru has joined them! Of course, at first many aspects of village life seemed strange and unusual to the young city girl. But then Hotaru, by the way, is quite mature for her age in both respects, began to realize that "simplicity is enough for every wise man." In nature under a clear sky feelings become simpler, purer and deeper, and you can have just as much fun with friends among fields and hills as in the stone jungles of Ginza or Shinjuku. The main character now has a great chance to become better, wiser and more responsible, and then she will be accepted as an adult and mature girl not only by the naive little Komari.
