In Tokyo, the poor working class Akimotos own and operate a fish shop, they having had to move their storefront onto a side alley from the main street after the war which has negatively affected their business. Twenty year old Yôichi, the second oldest of five offspring and the oldest son, works in the shop with his mother, he the heir apparent to managing the shop, which may be sooner than later as his father is in ill health. Even if she did have an interest in the shop, Yôichi's older sister, Toyoko, is expected to get married and provide for whoever her husband. In her total self-interest, Toyoko wants to get as far away from their poverty and the fish shop as possible, she rather marrying for wealth than for love. None of this situation sits well with Yôichi, who too has always hated the fish shop - he embarrassed by always smelling like fish - but feels like it is his obligation in their current situation. He truly dreams of becoming a mariner like his deceased uncle, and with his best friend Seiji Harada as his confidante, fantasizes about the life of the young woman he spies through binoculars in a distant window he can see from his own bedroom. As one setback after another occurs in Yôichi's life taking him farther and farther away from any of what he really wants to the fish shop as his destiny, he may have to reevaluate his goals to make the best of what cards he has been dealt.