The film depicts the life of the prolific eighteenth and nineteenth century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa. When he was a teenager he was kicked out by his stepmother from his hometown of Nagano and sent to Edo. Until his return to his hometown more than three decades later he suffered poverty and homelessness and barely subsisted doing odd jobs and composing poetry. He eventually married and sired four children. He would lose his entire family.—aghaemi