In 2710, a boy named Shinichi is on a school field trip to a rebuilt 21st century version of the city Nara. When he wanders from his class, he spots a talking white deer and it steals his bag. Shinichi follows the deer and sees a strange girl named Toto and falls in love with her. She is being pursed by two brothers and they try to get away from them.

The story is set in a village in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kōchi during World War II. Even in this remote mountainous area, the perception of American and British people as "brutes" has taken root, due to the deaths and injuries among the villagers' relatives. A elementary schoolgirl named Eiko transfers from the city of Yokohama to this village. Eiko happens to have blue eyes from her American father, and her classmates make no attempt to rein in their bullying. Other than Eiko's homeroom teacher Akiko, even the teachers view Eiko the same way that the children do. However, a boy named Kenta views Eiko more with curiosity than with hostility. The children's lives change as the injured father of one of Kenta's classmates returns from the battlefield and news of more casualties arrives in the village.