Miura Shion

The story follows the employees at the Genbu Shobō publishing company. Araki, who is a veteran editor for the dictionary department, is looking for a successor now that he's approaching retirement age. After Majime Mitsuya - a salesman who's a poor talker - meets Masashi Nishioka - Araki's coworker who is sociable and frivolous — Araki overhears their conversation and decides to recruit Majime into the department. The story follows "the awkward humans" Majime and Masashi as they work together to compile a medium-sized Japanese dictionary titled "The Great Passage" (Daitokai).

Kogure-sou is a crumbling old apartment building of just six rooms where four people live. On the first floor are the owner, a very old man who wants to have sex before he dies, and a girl in university who pines in a sad and complicated love. On the second floor are a salary man who finds meaning to his life in spying on the university girl below him, and Mayu whose boyfriend disappeared three years ago. Also involved are the florist from the nearby shop who worries over her husband's infidelity and Mine who is still troubled by a crime committed a long time ago. What all of them strive for is love, but they all find nothing but pain and bitter disappointments. Do they realize that what heals them is actually the run-down little apartment building and the real human warmth that they share with each other?

In the fictional Tokyo suburb of Mahoro, Keisuke Tada works as a "benriya" – a general problem solver for hire. One day in January, former classmate Haruhiko Gyoten appears unannounced. Back in their school days, Gyoten was a quiet person who rarely talked. Now, Gyoten can't stop talking. Both men are over 30 years old and divorced. Without giving an explanation, Gyoten suddenly asks to spend the night at Tada's home. Tada turns him down, but Gyoten is persistent. Tada relents and allows him to sleep over for one night. What Tada is unaware of is that Gyoten plans to stay for more than one night. Eventually, Tada accepts Gyoten as his assistant and they become involved in various cases involving an assortment of people from different walks of life.

Kakeru, a former elite runner at high school, is chased for stealing food. He is saved by a Kansei University student Haiji, who is also a runner. Haiji persuades Kakeru to live in the old apartment "Chikuseisou" where he plans to team up with fellow residents to enter Hakone Ekiden Marathon, one of the most prominent university races in Japan. Kakeru soon finds out that all of the residents except for Haiji and himself are complete novices.