Sumida wants the status quo to remain in every way; live a normal life, get a normal job, have normal kids, never to be anyone fortunate or unfortunate, content in normality. Anyone who doesn’t agree is foolish, doomed to live their life scraping up a mountain that they can never conquer, fated to die in despair wishing things had been better. When his mother kicks his father out of the house and onto the streets, he thinks he’ll be fine. When his mother leaves him to live with her boyfriend, he makes the best of it. When he realizes that he’s no longer average, he strives to make his life worthwhile the only way he knows how. 

Two kids go to Tokyo after their mother died and their stepfather kicked them out of the house. In Tokyo they meet up with a fellow orphan named Shigeru Ito. Thus begins their cynical tale of laughter and depression.