Hatoko Amemiya has just returned to Kamakura, the coastal town where she grew up under the care of her grandmother, to resume the family business of a stationery store. Hers is a line of scribes, an ancient trade that Hatoko is determined to honour and make survive over time through the small tasks that clients entrust to her: how to say goodbye to someone, greet a newcomer or remember the sweetness of a first love, everything has a place within the margins of a letter, which Hatoko takes care to make with delicacy, choosing the right stamp, the exact words, ink and weight for each one.

Ito Ogawa weaves a moving story about the details that fill the daily life of any community, all of it held in the background by the landscapes, gastronomy and Japanese festivities that accompany and celebrate the passing of the seasons of the year, the relief of affections and teachings that we inherit like open letters from generation to generation.