This film documents the time shared by four high school students and four elderly mountain sages. The students are typical Japanese teenagers who share a deep anxiety about the future. The sages represent a rural, mountain-based life that Japan has all but discarded in search of rapid economic development and material prosperity. The eight lives sketched herein provide us with a window on the fundamental contrasts to be found in Japan - urban vs. rural, modern vs. traditional, the young and the old - and show us what can happen when these radically different worlds meet.—Anonymous