A wonderfully warm (perhaps too 'soft' for some critics) film on the understanding of generations, respect for the past, cultural cross-communication and the persistence of memory. Four grandchildren of a very elderly woman have come to visit her at her home in Nagasaki one summer. They are not impressed with her cooking and strive to convince her to vacation in Hawaii where their parents are attempting to contract some lucrative pineapple import business with a relation. It would be an opportunity for the grandmother to see her ill brother, whom she can now barely remember. They really want to go to Hawaii as they are curious about their wealthy half American/half Japanese cousin Clark (played by Richard Gere).

While biding time in Nagasaki the children visit the spot where their grandfather died from the Atomic bomb blast of 1945 and see memorials of that event as well as his favorite meditation spots near the home. They easily come to respect the wishes of their grandmother who desires to stay and commemorate the anniversary of his death on August 9th. After that she says she they can all go to Hawaii. But in the interim the cousin intercepts a telegram meant for the returning parents and himself travels to Nagasaki. Fear abounds as the parents assume their prosperous deal has been put in jeopardy by the mentioning of the Atomic bomb in the telegram. Instead Clark travels to Nagasaki to show his concern to the grandmother (his aunt) on the death of her husband some 45 years earlier. He apologizes for not knowing that he was killed by the atomic bomb in a gesture that reflects American sympathy and respect for the events of World War 2.