In 1947, a year heavily tinged by the scars of war, Kitazawa Taro, Mitamura Kiichi, Arikawa Nobuo and other fellow poets who would play a central role in post-war Japan’s modern poetry movement gathered for the launch of the poetry magazine ‘Arechi’. 28 years later in 1975, a 53-year-old Kitazawa works at a newspaper’s proofreading department as he continues scrape by composing poetry. Although he is not prolific as a poet, he cherishes ordinary happiness every day surrounded by his wife Haruko and their daughter Yuko and son Sho. But a big turning point comes for Kitazawa one day. He develops frequent contact with Akiko, the wife of his good friend Mitamura. Falling in love with her, he abandons his job and leaves his wife Haruko and two children behind. As he starts to live with Akiko who has also left home, he recovers an unprecedented passion and “words”. Each of them start to live the life of the “wasteland”.