The 17-year-old Yatabe Mineko grew up in a family of seven in a mountain village in northeastern Ibaraki Prefecture. Her father Minoru has gone to Tokyo to work in order to earn extra money. However, her life completely changes when her father does not come back for the New Year. Mineko asks her family to let her go to Tokyo to find him and promises to send money home. In the autumn of 1964, she and two childhood friends Tokiko and Mitsuo are hired to start working at a small factory in Tokyo’s working class neighborhood. After work each day, Mineko searches for her father and gets disheartened at times. Mineko overcomes challenges and starts to lay down roots in Tokyo as she experiences many meetings and farewells amid the laughter and tears with regulars, people of the shopping street, friends, and colleagues. But will she be able to find her father?

Jun is an 18-year-old high school student. He hides the fact that he is gay from his mother and other people. Miura-san is a classmate of Jun. She likes reading books about BL (genre depicting homoerotic stories). Jun tells Miura-san that BL is just fantasy and that gayness in real life is dirty. Miura-san tells Jun that his remark is offensive to gay people. Nevertheless, Jun and Miura-san become close. Jun becomes interested in Miura-san, and Miura-san begins to have feelings for Jun. One day, Miura-san tells Jun that she likes him.

Shibusawa Eiichi was born in 1840 to a farmer’s family. He grew up helping his family with work, which was to manufacture and sell indigo production and also silk farming. He left his hometown at the age of 23 and began working for the government. He later traveled to Paris and learned about banking. Upon his return to Japan, he helped build up the first modern bank in Japan. He eventually became a founder or supporter to about 500 companies and was involved with about 600 public services, including education for women.

Kakinoki Kukichi is a doctor who runs a small clinic in Kyoto. He specializes in making house calls and even helps his patients with shopping and taking care of their bonsais.

Kazuki Yoshinami is a pharmaceutical researcher at a university. His friend Wataru Kashiwagi is also a pharmaceutical researcher at the same university. They are rivals, but talk to each other about their dreams. One day, Kazuki Yoshinami has a groundbreaking discovery. This leads to Kazuki Yoshinami and Wataru Kashiwagi becoming involved in a competition among companies over patents. Newspaper reporter Tomoko Kawahara, who is Kazuki Yoshinami’s childhood friend, becomes aware of this.

Women's self-esteem saves the society! Ms. Shirakawa, a beautiful woman with strong mentality, repels stresses that afflicts women, such as prejudice, harassment, and dominance.

"Youthfulness is like an enclosed room made of awkwardness." The drama depicts six closed-door conversations among high school students, which show the fragility and warmth of youths.

Best friends Mieko and Makio meet a university student, Eiji, who ends up falling for Makio. Despite everyone being against the relationship, Mieko decides to watch over them as they grow, and their bonds and relationships gradually change.

Eight fictional holidays are taken by actor Ryoma Takeuchi. While taking a break from filming, he visits a spice shop.

An original medical murder mystery surrounds an unknown killer coccus (bacteria), that leaves no trace in the victim's body, which enables it to be used as the perfect weapon to kill. Fujimaki Tatsuomi is a pathologist working at the Pathlogy department at Meikyo Medical University Hospital. He's looked down upon by the other staff around him, and his relationship with Maho his wife, a former nurse, has cooled down. After a patient's suspicious death, he makes a new discovery; when the deadly bacteria "Gift" invades the body, the patient soon dies, but the "Gift" leaves no trace thereafter, enabling it to be used as the perfect weapon to kill. As a result of this discovery, Fujimaki's life dramatically changes. While searching for a way to treat his ailing wife's heart disease, he becomes embroiled in a conspiracy surrounding the killer bacteria "Gift."

Yoji Minamimaru, known as Nanmaru, is a university student with a supernatural ability to create small holes in anything. One day, Yoji finds out that the professor of folklore studies has gone missing. Together with his classmates, he decides to search for the professor.