Accompanied by a shamisen, a masterful storyteller verses his lyric and sad rakugo (a traditional form of Japanese verbal entertainment) of a stingy old man living in a squalid tiny apartment in Tokyo, who after scavenging a few cherries from the pavement, he eats them whole for fear of wasting the pits. Before long, a minuscule cherry tree sprouts unexpectedly atop his bulging head, and when all efforts to get rid of it are proven futile, he allows it to grow into a magnificent tree where people gather for hanami under its cherry blossoms. And then, when the hordes of men start being annoying, the desperate man takes a decision that will follow him for the rest of his life.