The film centers around Jirō Hirayama, a boy who lost his mother in the Great Kanto Earthquake, and who runs a soba stall with his father. He decides to join the crew of the famous ocean liner Hikawa Maru, and finds work cooking in the ship's galley. Through his eyes, the film explores the ship's 85-year history.

The story is set in four different time periods of the ship's service.

The first part will take place in the ship's pre-war life, when it ran the Pacific route between Yokohama, Vancouver, and Seattle. Charlie Chaplin travelled on the ship in this time period in 1932.

The second time period takes place during the war, when the Imperial Japanese Navy commandeered and refitted the Hikawa Maru as a hospital ship, and after the war, when the ship repatriated Japanese soldiers from the front.

The third time period takes place during the ship's post-war return to service as a passenger and cargo ship. The fourth time period takes place after its decommissioning and permanent berthing.

[Source: Anime News Network]