Mitsuya Majime is, by all accounts, a word person. Physically clumsy and socially awkward, he only truly feels at home within the rules and confines of lexicography, or when relaxing in solitude at his boarding house with his cat, Tora-san. After struggling in the sales division of the Genbu Books publishing company, he manages to land his dream job in the Dictionary Editorial Department, where he can use his talents to compile a new dictionary, called "The Great Passage". Partnering with Mitsuya are an elderly professor who is nearing retirement after devoting his life to studying the Japanese language and a callow young man who is slow to develop an appreciation for the challenging task ahead. Mitsuya`s love of language, however, leaves him speechless when he meets Kaguya, his landlady`s granddaughter, who moves into his building and beguiles him with her obsession with cooking knives and fine cuisine.