Ito, a high school student living with her father and grandmother in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, is very introverted and has few friends. She has not touched her shamisen, an instrument, which has been handed down to her after her mother`s death after being passed down from generation to generation. It is then, on the spur of the moment, that she applies for a part-time job at a `maid cafe` and is successfully hired. The senior employees there are all full of character and individuality, including an older single mother and an aspiring manga artist. As Ito is surrounded by the strange yet charming regular customers, she gradually opens herself up to them. Then, one day, an opportunity arises to perform the shamisen, which she had kept locked up.